Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join others in welcoming the Taoiseach to the Seanad and thank him for giving of his time today. We are particularly happy to have the Taoiseach here after our near death experience. I believe the Taoiseach should be congratulated for being the first Taoiseach to grasp the nettle of political reform and tackle the issue head on with a referendum which was always going to be divisive. The Taoiseach promised he would put the question to the people and he followed through on that promise. By doing so, he has started a meaningful national conversation on political reform.

The suggestion of referring the issue of Seanad reform to the Constitutional Convention, of which I am a member nominated by the Taoiseach, is flawed as the current remit of the convention is to report to the Government to help it to decide whether certain issues should be put to the people by way of referendum. Therefore, that is a redundant suggestion under the current remit of the convention.

Two weeks ago, I was happy to see the Taoiseach act decisively and immediately on the issue of the Seanad, by starting the process of implementing the will of the people as set forth in the 1979 referendum on third level voting rights for the Seanad. Successive Governments passively reinforced the status quo and actively ignored political reform. Like it or not, in two and a half years, the current Government has undertaken more political reform across the board than previous Governments over many years, in terms of wages, gender quotas, local government reform, reducing the number of junior Ministers and more.

When considering Seanad reform, we must talk about political reform generally. Financial political reform is important in this context, but there has not been significant focus on this area in the debate to date. We need to assert certain facts here. The Taoiseach is now paid 47% less than former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen were paid at the peak. During Fianna Fáil's time in government, the Taoiseach's salary increased by 105%, while under the current Taoiseach's leadership it has decreased. During the same period, Ministers' salaries increased by 94%, but these salaries have decreased by 26% in the lifetime of the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition. This is the kind of reform that is most relevant in today's financially strapped Ireland.

As I said, two weeks ago I was happy to see the Taoiseach had seized the initiative and started the ball rolling on Seanad reform. Now we must discuss the next steps and whether we want to reform the panel system. I am interested in the comments of other Senators on reform, but the panel issue is a huge debate in itself. If we want to reform that system, what scale of reform do we wish to see? At the very least, I think it is time to reconfigure the focus and outlook of some of the panels or to divide them more finely. A cultural panel, an NGO panel and a technical panel could, for example, be panels that would allow the Seanad acquire an expertise it otherwise might not have. I would have no difficulty with voting for these panels being opened up to the voting public, but it seems we are constrained by the Constitution in this regard. We need to think about what kind of panel system would give us an outcome where Senators, like some of the current Taoiseach's nominees, could be elected. Subsequently, if the change in panels took place, we could then consider scaling back the number of Taoiseach's nominees in a renewed Seanad.

Besides electoral reform and access to the Seanad, we need to reform the way we do our daily business. Most Senators have put forward various ideas on this front. We need to review the Order of Business, the scrutiny of EU legislation and the scrutiny of our own legislation as there has been a reduction in the amount of legislation coming before the House. This is regrettable and needs attention. As other Senators have mentioned, dealing with legislation is the primary purpose of the Seanad.

I welcome the Seanad reform set forth so far and welcome the implementation of the decision taken by 91% of the people in the 1979 referendum. I welcome the presence of the Taoiseach here today as we debate what steps to take next as we seek to reform the Seanad in a meaningful way.