Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of time for debate in this House. The Minister, Deputy Zappone, will come to the House this afternoon. I appreciate she has limited time available in order to deal with questions. However, right now several organisations in the State are at risk of suffering severe reputational damage which may go on into the future.

The Senate has to come to terms with the new politics. In fairness to the Leader, he has embraced it as much as he can. There are 13 Independents in this House. Not all of us have the same view. All of us have our own questions and issues that we wish to raise. We can no longer rely on the old system that pertained with party spokespeople or the leader of a particular group to deal with things. This is a Senate that is on its way to reform. It is not appropriate for people to come in here and talk about their "constituencies" - we do not have a constituency. We are national politicians. We are here in order to hold the Government to account. The days of that nonsense are over. It is now time for the Seanad to start to behave as it was designed to behave, which is to hold the Government to account.

We have so many conflicting stories coming out of Dáil Éireann at the moment. They are changing their story by the new time down there. We need to be free to ask questions here without turning it into politics. They should be straight, honest, decent questions to try to get straight, honest, decent answers for people. The Leader knows as well as I do that by allowing eight minutes per group and five minutes thereafter, nobody will get in thereafter. I am pleading with the Leader now to extend the time.We will more than likely have the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, in the House before the end of the week and the call I am making will also have to apply at that time.