Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome. According to Senator Barrett, the Minister last attended the House when we commemorated Seamus Heaney's great contribution to this country. That day was a momentous one, as it was the day before the Seanad referendum. Seamus Heaney played no small part posthumously in retaining the Seanad, as other Senators have mentioned. I support Senator Ó Clochartaigh's comments. We must move to use the mandate given by the people to reform the House so that everyone in Ireland can vote on its Members.
Today marks the 750th anniversary of the sitting of the first Parliament in Castledermot. As Senator Bacik mentioned, it predated the first sitting of De Montfort's Parliament in England by seven months and two days. That is not bad. There is nothing new about parliamentary assemblies in Ireland. The Normans, who began settling Ireland in 1169, were the first to give it a centralised administration. Our legal system is, in large measure, inherited from them. So, too, is our Legislature, which is directly descended from the Parliament that developed in medieval Ireland.
The Minister stated that the first Parliament was not representative of the people of Ireland, but it developed incrementally and covered citizens of the lordship of Ireland based on Norman laws and English practices. In 1217, the Magna Carta was extended to the Great Charter of Ireland and membership was based on fealty to the king and the preservation of his peace. The fluctuating number of autonomous Irish Gaelic kings were outside the system. They had their own local Brehon law and taxation arrangements. To be fair to the Irish people, we had to fight to develop our local system until we achieved the independent Dáil and Seanad Éireann after 1921.
I am not bemoaning the lack of a monarchy, but I am concerned about the demise of democracy and the rise of some autocratic tendencies during this Government's term. Four people ruling over the Cabinet is not constitutional. The Taoiseach's tampering with the selection of Senators to the banking inquiry was an undemocratic move. We need to be careful and avoid supporting such behaviour. We are fortunate to have a democracy. I could echo Senator Bacik's words of plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
The 1297 Parliament held in Dublin was noteworthy for a number of reasons. It is the earliest Parliament from which substantial legislation survives and many consider it our first real Parliament because representatives were sent by the shires and provinces of Ireland with the full power to speak and decide for all and its legislation was fully binding.
Some Senators have been sent to this House, but Senator Bradford and I have no formal speaking time unless time is left over.