Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Wiser counsel has prevailed with the electorate. I appreciate that I only have six minutes so I do not wish to waste much time on that, but I was anxious to outline the historical context.

Very progressive reforms have been brought forward by the Leader of the House, as outlined in the amendment, but ultimately power still resides in the Executive. In the reform proposals for this House, even from the Fianna Fáil Party, there is retention of the Taoiseach's nominations, which ensures there is a continuing inbuilt majority for the Government of the day. Therein lies the complexity of attempting to change the role of the Seanad. It is generally accepted that one cannot have a Seanad that is competing with the other House. It would not work and would be unconstitutional. One must therefore try to frame something that will allow the Seanad to expand within the existing constitutional constraints while at the same time not being seen to be in competition with the other House. The Leader of the House has been attempting to do that.

I recall it being said by the former President, Mary Robinson, during her election campaign that she would stretch the constitutional constraints of the presidency to its limits - I am paraphrasing her words. Her successor, Mary McAleese, did the same and President Higgins is doing it now. They stretched it to its absolute constitutional limits, far more than their predecessors did. We in these Houses are now doing much more than previous Houses did, so I continue to applaud the initiatives being taken by the Leader of the House. I believe he should look to the European dimension to a greater extent and how we could play a more useful role in that regard, given that over 80% of our laws come from Europe. I appreciate that the committees are conducting a certain amount of scrutiny in that context, but I believe we have a role.

With regard to the committees, I believe another political sea change is taking place before our eyes. It is not only the changing nature of the committee system in the Oireachtas, and they are joint committees, but their increasing relevance and influence, to the point where the Committee of Public Accounts is now seen as almost a separate government by many of the general public. People have asked why we do not have more such committees, but other committees are already beginning to flex their muscles in this regard. I hope the Government will not restrain or constrain the committees and that it will facilitate the evolving nature of these committees, which is taking place before our eyes. Many more issues of the day are being brought before the committees and the national media are now fully engaged with the work of those committees, to an extent that was never the case previously in my experience. Previously, the media saw committees as irrelevant but now they see them as very relevant. In fact, they frame the headlines of the day. Witnesses are brought forward and very few people from outside this House will refuse to comply with a request to appear before a committee. Heretofore, in some instances people refused to appear, but it is now very unlikely that a public figure who is involved in a public controversy will refuse to comply with a request from the Houses' committees. That is what is happening and the Government should harness it.

Finally, as Senator Norris said, the problem was and remains whether the Government of the day, and I am not referring specifically to this Government, has it within itself to release or concede some of its power within the Houses of the Oireachtas. That is the nub of what should be involved in reform. We have the most centralised Executive and democracy in Europe, where the Government of the day uses its majority to get its legislative programme through. Every Government has done the same and every Government in the future will continue to do it, but there must be some type of give to ensure there is meaningful reform in both Houses.