Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One can e-mail, but a report of this significance and importance should be circulated. Are we like turkeys voting for Christmas? One should at least know what was in the report. We were asking what was in the report, but no one knew because it had not been circulated. It is not the responsibility of Dr. Maurice Manning or Mr. Joe O'Toole.

I am the only Member of this House who served in Government. When I was a Minister of State with responsibility for trade and marketing, I brought legislation on many important issues through the Seanad, during which period both Dr. Manning and Joe O'Toole were Senators, and the contributions that were made were second to none. I never looked down on the Seanad. I came into this Chamber well-prepared by officials and listened to the very excellent contributions. It was far more difficult to come to the Seanad than to go to the Dáil. I can remember accepting an amendment from the late Nuala Fennell, when she was a Member of this Chamber, to get rid of the word "illegitimate".

In 1979, an amendment to the Constitution was put to the people and passed with more than 550,000 voting for it. No one, including the three former Senators, brought forward a Bill to reform the Seanad on the basis of that decision which provided that the procedure for the election of six members of the Seanad by university graduates could be altered by law. I brought forward a Bill and someone else may have too. People have been rather remiss, but I am open to correction if they did bring forward a Bill to reform the Seanad. I cannot find it, however, and that is rather interesting.