Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It was a profound tragedy that there was such loss of life yesterday as a result of the storm. I offer my sympathies to the families involved. I happened to be on a train yesterday for approximately ten hours. We were treated with absolute civility by Iarnród Éireann. Without the guys with the chainsaws, we would not have moved anywhere because they were ten hours on the tracks between here and Wexford through Rathdrum, Arklow and Gorey clearing the debris in order that we could get back to Dublin. Ours was the last train to arrive into the city.

I wrote to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, CPP, during the week in respect of a matter that relates to the Independents - the real ones, of which there are only two. Other people who are described as Independents are not really independent, they join groups. There is a kind of apartheid whereby if someone joins a group, he or she will get the facility to actually speak in the House and a few other things. A Senator might not agree with the other members of the group in respect of thought processes or he or she might not agree with it politically but he or she will join in any event. Even though they are Independents and get the leader's allowance, they are not independent at all. I was making a suggestion that, outside of the leaders, the people who come into the House in order of time, preference and form should be given speaking rights. I have written that down. The Cathaoirleach was away when I wrote to the CPP on foot of the fact that I feel a form of apartheid operates here. For whatever reason, people who really are Independents are not given the same amount of time to speak. This is because the bigger groups are just that - bigger- and have more speakers.

I used to be a member of the Irish Federation of University Teachers but when I went to lecture in Dublin City University, DCU, SIPTU informed me that if I took the job, I had to join it. I was so innocent at the time that I did not take it on in the courts so I had to join the union to become a lecturer in DCU. It is as if a person, even though he or she is an Independent, has to join a group within the Seanad in order to obtain proper speaking rights. This is not an attack on the Cathaoirleach. It is the form. The Cathaoirleach is extremely flexible and good but it is the form and it is wrong. I have written to the CPP about the matter.