Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. I compliment the two Senators on bringing forward the Bill and admire their honesty. I particularly admire the honesty of Senators Cassells and Kyne who opened up the real issues that annoy the people of this country.

One such issue is the 11 senators nominated by the Taoiseach, where we could bring in people from diverse backgrounds but do not. Rather, we bring in our own political party representatives. Despite what has been said during the debate, the Chamber is a replication of the Dáil, which is totally wrong. There are vocational panels. Every piece of legislation coming through the House should be viewed through the prism of the vocational panel that we stand on.

We do not need a Government majority in the House. We did not have the pleasure of that in the previous House-----