Seanad debates

Tuesday, 4 November 2014

3:20 pm

Photo of Sean BarrettSean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for inviting the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, for the health debate. Mr. Seán Boylan is here because he has an interest in that aspect of our wider health and medical services. Last Saturday week, Mr. Jeff Dudgeon of the Ulster Unionist Party, at a meeting of the Irish Association, called for the retention of the long wave 252 service, as Senator Mooney has done. Councillor Dudgeon said it is a way this State talks to people in Northern Ireland. A member of the Unionist community has asked RTE not to shut down a service. I compliment the Minister, Deputy White, on delaying the shutting down of transmission and hope we might debate it in view of the wider context in which the service operates.

On 29 October, I received a note from the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, that he has incorporated into the memorandum of association of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland proposals from this House that the bank should operate in a counter-cyclical manner. It is important that the House notes the Minister's decision. The biography of T.K. Whitaker states that he came to appreciate the important political and constitutional role played in public life by this democratic forum, where he was elected political speaker of the year in 1978 by the press correspondents. He said the Seanad gives a platform to independent voices and does important, though unglamorous, work as the second Chamber in scrutinising, initiating and revising legislation. He reiterated those views last year during the referendum. The fact that the Minister for Finance has incorporated into an article of association proposals made here and that our senior and most eminent public servant endorses the House challenges us to live up to the hopes of those who sent us here and to realise those high expectations.

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