Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend the movers of the Bill. We all want to see change and reform in the way we do our business. I agree with some items in the Bill but there are some that I totally disagree with. I reject totally that the Government has been in any way obstructionist in relation to this Bill.

Let us look at the Title of Bill - the Seanad Bill. I would have thought that it would have been called the Seanad Reform Bill, the Seanad (Amendment) Bill or whatever. Therefore, I reject totally the charge that the Government side is being in any way obstructionist about this Bill. The primary duty of this House is to scrutinise, amend and debate legislation. That is exactly what we are doing with this Bill and is the same for any other Bill. That is what this Bill deserves, namely, the scrutiny of this House. It deserves to be amended and discussed so that we can pick the good things out. Obviously we are not going to agree. There are people on this side of the House who disagree with my sentiments. The same applies to the other side of the House. People disagree with each other on some aspects of this Bill but we will debate it. As a democracy we will debate the legislation.

As has been mentioned, and as the Taoiseach announced yesterday, the Government decided last week that a working group would be set up within the next number of days. Its jobs is to bring together the reports and all the proposals that have come before the House and it will report back by February.