James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

He is still at it. All I have to do is keep encouraging him and he will keep doing it.

The ninth recommendation of the working group talks about giving consideration to North-South Ministerial Council proposals; giving consideration to secondary legislation of the EU, which has been touched upon; consulting with relevant bodies prior to and during Second Stage debate, which I believe will cause problems; and investigating and reporting on matters of public policy interest, which I believe we already do. Much of the stuff that has been mentioned here can be done without necessarily passing a Bill, as Senator Paddy Burke has already noted.

I believe we are going to have a serious issue around how we can have representation without residency or taxation. A total of 5.5 million people who do not reside in or pay taxes here could influence policy that would impact on the day-to-day lives of the citizens who live here without any consequences for them. That is not in any way to demean the value of our diaspora, which is very important to us not just from the point of view of creating more jobs and more industry but from a cultural point of view and all it has done for us. It is more a case of how we get that balance right between those we want to involve and the powers of this Seanad in respect of how it impacts on national policy. I believe there needs to be input but we have an awful lot of work to do to investigate how to get that balance right so that the citizens of this country who live and pay their taxes here and suffer the consequences of policy here do not feel disenfranchised by a larger number of our diaspora which would have an input into that. This is something that requires far more examination.

When I was a Minister, one feature of this House I found hugely useful and helpful related to commencing legislation. Many of the things Senator Paddy Burke referred to and the issue of starting more Bills in this House can be done without necessarily waiting for this Bill to complete its passage and for the reform of the Seanad to take place. Many of the things we could do that would improve the working of the House and create far more relevance for our people can be done without necessarily waiting for this. I welcome the Bill in terms of the debate it has generated.