Jimmy Harte (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I join with other Members in praising Senator Mulcahy for raising the issue today. I do not like to use the word “blackmail” in the context of the Minister in question but one cannot blackmail the public to say that if they do not get one thing, they will not get the other.

In other words, unless they get rid of the Seanad, disability payments and funds for disabled people will be reduced. While no Member has a problem with a reasoned debate on the future of the Seanad and every Member will accept whatever the public decide, one cannot use people with disabilities as a bargaining position to make the public feel guilty. It is unacceptable to suggest that were people to decide to retain the Seanad, they should feel guilty about so doing because it will mean that people with disabilities suffer. This is not the way to debate the future of the Seanad.

At one point, the argument was put forward that the country was too small to have two Houses but now one is being told it is a financial issue. Members of the public are being told that unless they vote for the abolition of the Seanad, people will suffer in their pockets and the figure being quoted is highly inaccurate as a more accurate figure is €8 million or less. I have made this point previously but were the Government so concerned in this regard, Seán Quinn was bailed out by the taxpayer and it would take about 400 years of the Seanad continuing at its present rate of expenditure to even match the amount involved. Consequently, the public will be short-changed if the Government and those in charge of conducting the referendum use such language. It suggests to me the Government has received private opinion poll data showing the Seanad will be saved. However, I ask the Minister and all other Ministers not to use people with disabilities in this way or to make the public feel guilty for voting for something that has nothing to do with people with disabilities.