Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I warmly welcome the Taoiseach and thank him for coming to the House. I welcome the remarks he made about Seanad reform, starting with a potential role in the scrutiny of European directives. This morning, we had a very clear indication from a court in Brussels, in the context of the opinion of the judge advocate on the Graham Dwyer case, of the implications European directives can have for Ireland. I would dare to suggest that if that directive had been carefully examined in a House of the Oireachtas, the suggestion that the present form of the directive should prevent Ireland from taking reasonable steps to protect people who have been the victims of crime and to investigate crime would not have been made.

In 2013, there was a referendum on the abolishment of this House. The Taoiseach, for the reasons he mentioned, played a leading role in the fight to prevent that from happening. The late former Senator Feargal Quinn and a small group of others joined him in a coalition to save this House. I wish to make a point that everybody in this House should take on board. If the Taoiseach had not been in a position to state in the course of a debate broadcast by TV3, in which I joined him against Deputies McDonald and Bruton, that he stood for reform of this House, the House would not have survived. The time has come to pay up on that guarantee of reform. I do not wish to be adversarial but when the Taoiseach was leader of the Opposition in 2019, he called on the current Tánaiste to be honest as to whether he really did believe in reform and asked him on the floor of the Dáil whether it was the case that he did not believe in reform at all.

Reform will happen if the Members of Dáil Éireann put their shoulders to the wheel. I do not think it is reasonable to expect people elected to this House under a system that needs reform to be the most advocate or courageous representatives of the reform movement. I know the Bill that is before the House, the Second Reading of which was put back until 31 December of this year, probably enjoys more support in Dáil Éireann than in this House, for obvious reasons. I am a realist. When the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Noonan, came to the House in November 2020, he stated that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, would confer with all the Members of this House and the wider Oireachtas and bring forward proposals for the reform of the Seanad by May 2021. That has not happened yet. He strongly denied that there was any question of kicking the can down the road. On that occasion, I accepted his good faith and I accept that the Department of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is dealing with a crisis in housing, but now is the time to begin to deliver.

As regards the Bill put forward by Senator Byrne, I refer to the decision of the High Court yesterday in the Heneghan case. If Senator Byrne's Bill alone is passed, up to 1.2 million third level graduates of all the various universities and technological universities and perhaps some other institutions would have a say in the election of the Seanad, but 3 million other people would not. A total of 1.2 million people would elect six Senators, while 1,200 people would either appoint or elect 54 Senators. That is not fair. The people of Ireland were promised change and they should get change.