Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have no doubt he will be a regular visitor to the House over the four or five-year lifespan of this Government.

I welcome the Bill. As a young fellow in Clare, I always admired Senator McDowell from a distance for his legal and political brain. I am not surprised that he champions Seanad reform.

We have had other good champions in the Seanad, including Dr. Maurice Manning, who lectured me when I studied politics at UCD for three years. UCD is where many people my age learned about politics, its intricacies and the value of the Seanad. As a UCD student, I came here as a guest of Dr. Maurice Manning. I sat in the Visitors Gallery and saw the workings of the Seanad at first hand.

Like everyone else, I want Seanad reform but first we must check what works. We are quick to criticise ourselves and institutions but we should consider what we have achieved in this Chamber. Some of the most influential people in Irish society have passed through this Chamber. To my left is Senator Norris. We all know what he has achieved since the 1980s. His success is in no small part due to his membership of this House. If anybody suggested that a reformed Seanad would not have somebody like him in it, I do not believe the Irish people would want such a situation. We must be careful about how we pitch reform and what type of reform we embrace. The reform of local government was discussed for a long time and eventually it was reformed before the 2014 local elections. If one asks a current councillor, particularly one in a rural area, whether reform is good, he or she will reply in the negative and state that the municipal areas are too big and that the municipal district structure is broken, even though it was never right in the first instance. Also, the elimination of town councils came about on foot of a unilateral decision but many people would say that swathes of urban Ireland are not represented at local authority level. I caution that we need reform but we must ensure that it is the right type of reform.

I have only direct experience of Seanad Éireann since 2011. From what I have been told, the Seanad prior to 2011 was one of the best in recent history because former Senator Maurice Cummins was Leader of the House.