Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If there was to be reform I would like to see this done. I would like there to be no Whip and for the House to deal with EU scrutiny and ratifying public appointments. Not one Bill would need to be passed for this and it would cost nothing. However we cannot have this because senior civil servants would not like it and neither would Ministers.

I spoke about an axis of collusion earlier and I stated a number of them exist. There is one between the banks, the Central Bank and the Department of Finance and there is another between the Secretary General of each Department and their counterparts in the relevant section of the European Commission. They tell the Ministers what suits them and Ministers are compelled to act accordingly. Perhaps they do so willingly in some instances. The House always wins. From Government to Government from the 1970s through to today, whether they were Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael in single party or coalition governments of various parties what were the real policy differences? What was the fundamental game-changer from one government to the next? The answer is nothing. The Government is following the banking policy of the previous Government. In fairness it has watered down the code of conduct on mortgage arrears and I must give it that. We are mere pawns and tools in the game whereby the senior outfits decide what happens, the Whips are sent down and the fear factor dictates what happens. With regard to costs we can see it is pure mythology to speak about €24 million or €25 million.

In the Seanad over the years various amendments have been made and Private Members' Bills have been introduced, some of which were accepted by the Government of the day but most were not because it was not the Government's idea and governments do not like to give kudos to opposition parties for anything. Occasionally the Independents get their Private Members' business through but in the main they do not. These issues are rarely covered by the media. In fairness, Senator Norris, and other high profile people in civil society who happened to be Senators such as Joe O'Toole and Shane Ross, receive media coverage arguably because of their stature outside the House. They have made exceptional contributions here also but they have received media coverage as a result of their outside contributions. The rest of us do not. We are swept aside, and if it were not for an intemperate outburst by either myself or Senator Leyden we would not make it into the media.

Sadly, this is what will inform the decision to be made by the public, assuming the legislation is passed. This is what will happen. People will judge the House on what colour writers such as Lise Hand and Miriam Lord write about intemperate outbursts, which are a tiny percentage of the actual work done on the scrutiny of legislation. Even in its flawed state, if the public was truly informed about what goes on in here I believe it would have much more confidence in the political system. That said, of course it needs reform but it does not need the political will of a single Senator to have it reformed although all Senators past and present have the will to engage in reform.

Ministers hate coming to the Seanad which is why so many Ministers of State, with respect-----