Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Sinn Féin group I, too, extend sympathy to the nurse who tragically lost her life in Crumlin hospital.

I also wish to raise the issue of bin charges and the anxiety being caused by the proposed increases in that regard. I suppose this was to be expected once the decision to privatise such an essential service was made. The chickens are now coming home to roost in that regard. Citizens need to be protected from the folly of that privatisation and what it will bring, as happened in the case of the privatisation of Eircom, our main communications company.

I draw the attention of the House to No. 6.1 on the Order Paper, which deals with Seanad reform, the rationale for which I would like to explain. The motion seeks the establishment of a time limited committee and commends the report of the working group on Seanad reform. In this regard, we were happy yesterday to support the Bill tabled by the Independent Group.

There are two key reasons we are of the opinion that a committee on Seanad reform needs to be established and tasked to come back to the floor of the Seanad with its recommendations within six weeks. First, there are 42 new Senators in this Seanad. We believe it is important that those new voices be heard and have ownership of the reform process. Second, there is a need for the Seanad to be distinctive from the Dáil and to play a key role in the scrutiny of European policies and directives as well as the North-South initiatives that permeate throughout the report. We agree with this but we are concerned that the Bill put forward does not reflect this. In particular, we are concerned about the absence of speaking rights for MEPs and MLAs and believe that this needs to be examined. We are mindful of the major failings of all previous Seanad reports, which never reached implementation stage. Notwithstanding this, we believe that a time limited committee, as described in the motion, would enhance the final outcome in an inclusive and collaborative way. We ask, therefore, that motion No. 6.1 be taken next week.