Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator Bradford speaks for me 100% in what he has said. The Labour Party on this issue has lost all credibility and any claim to be defenders of human rights has gone out the window. Senator Bacik and others have never expressed opposition to abortion in any of its aspects internationally, which is a remarkable and disturbing fact.

I wish to be associated with the tributes to Mr. Bernard Hand. Our ushers are a treasure to us, as those of us who have guests in here frequently are constantly witness to. Bernard has always been up there with the best of them. I thank him for all that he has done and I hope to see him often into the future.

As politicians, we know that full disclosure and transparency increase public confidence in our institutions. The register of Members' interests, the SIPO requirements and other statutory provisions in ethics all give the public confidence, hopefully, in the Oireachtas and in public representatives. Referring to transparency, the former US Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis said, "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants". Touching on some of what Senator Crown said, allowing the public full disclosure on financial matters, including payment and commercial interests, fosters accountability and prevents obvious corruption. It is remarkable that for so long in Irish life, secrecy and lack of transparency around pay packages and salaries of senior staff in representative organisations continue to be an issue.

Speaking as a son of the land and as somebody whose family farm would take about 200 or 300 years of activity to match the pay packet of the famous retiree from the IFA, I do not find it surprising that farmers are outraged and horrified that they, as members, were contributing to what can only be described as grossly inflated pay and compensation packages for senior management. The Irish Independentrevealed that over the past 14 months, the IFA refused repeated requests to furnish details of the general secretary's package and also the level of compensation paid to the president. I can only assume the ordinary rank-and-file members were also kept in the dark, which is not good enough. How many more unions and representative organisations throughout the country conceal the pay and compensation packages of senior managers from their members?

We need an urgent debate to establish what options are open to compel transparency in this sector. In the charity sector, the Oireachtas was required to pass legislation so that practices could be reformed. Perhaps it is time to consider covering unions and representative organisations also. There used to be a line that senior trade union officials needed to earn as much money as their industry counterparts so they could eyeball them across the table effectively. Where did that nonsense come from? What a lack of idealism. What a lack of a sense of service to the people they represent.