Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If you will allow me latitude, a Chathaoirligh, my point relates to why we are taking apart our legislative system. We are not introducing any mechanism to replace it. That is a big worry. We are literally dismantling an arm of the legislature. I am highlighting a seriously dysfunctional aspect of the legislative system as currently constituted and I wish to know why we are not discussing the replacement of what it is proposed to remove. What we have currently does not work. The Seanad has the potential to amend the democratic deficit but we seem to be rushing headlong into dismantling it without having a real proposal on how to make a dysfunctional system work better or at all.