Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We must accept that a referendum will be held. I accept this was a commitment made by my party, one of those we are managing to keep. We must also accept that if most colleagues here believe in the House in which we serve we will have to take a message to the people asking them to reject the referendum, not to save our jobs but to save an institution which, since the foundation of the State, has played an exceptionally valuable role in parliamentary democracy and scrutiny. It can do so again.

Senator Zappone outlined some of the measures advocated and taken here during the course of the current Seanad. The list is endless. When I think of the people with whom I have served, including the former Senators Mary Robinson, Joe O'Toole, John A. Murphy, Brendan Ryan and Gordon Wilson, I find it deeply depressing and exceptionally worrying that a member of my party could say she had never heard of the Seanad. That really frightens me.