Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I will not delay him long other than to say that, as a member of a trade union and a trade unionist who has spent the past 20 years of my life trying to rid this country of the scourge of fixed-term contracts, zero-hours contracts and all sorts of other contracts where people, unfortunately teachers, found themselves working in schools more hours than they had purely because they had the sword of next year's contract hanging over their head, the thought that we would pick the two most senior officials in the Houses of the Oireachtas and award them a contract that at some stage in the not too distant future is to fall is repugnant to the role. I refer to trust and faith.

Senator Sheahan spoke about confidence. The only confidence I have is that when the person is appointed, he or she is suitable for the role and is suitable to retain that role until such a time as he or she reaches retirement age. We must have faith in the commission to appoint the officials but once an official is appointed, we must have faith in the person who is appointed to carry out the role. Given the onerous nature of the role, one needs persons of experience. One needs persons who are able to offset some of the unforeseen issues that arise in both Houses.

When this Bill comes back I, like my colleague, Senator Darragh O'Brien, will be opposing it on Committee Stage, particularly if it still contains section 6A(3). In this country, we seem to be gone made on public hearings, short-term contracts and having a situation where somebody who is in a senior role spends half his or her life worrying about the next interview. It is not the way to do business and I ask the Minister of State to remove that from the Bill before it comes back to the House.