Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What Seanad reform is trying to achieve is what we have here already. Over the 25 years in which I have been a Senator, there has never been such a diverse Seanad. It includes Independents, party members and all shades of political opinion. The Senator indicated that every Seanad was under the thumb of the Government. We have it in our grasp or power to make whatever changes we wish but we have not done so as a Seanad. Nothing leads me to believe any future Seanad will do so either. We should have the courage to make changes but we have not done so.

I was hoping we would have a more robust debate on what is entailed in the report. I am not against Seanad reform; in fact, I am for it. As Senator Higgins stated, however, there are small changes proposed but considerable costs. As I said at a meeting of the committee, I could not stand over the proposed costs that I believe would be the costs of reforming Seanad Éireann and holding general elections. In a Seanad general election, it would probably cost four times more to elect 60 Members than it would cost to elect 158 to the Lower House.