Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am talking about Bills as important as the Electoral Reform Bill, to which I have one amendment and my colleagues, including the university Senators, have amendments, and the very important Higher Education Authority Bill, about which the university Senators have major concerns which are reflected in amendments we have proposed, amendments which will probably not get heard because the Government wants to ram through legislation at the end of term because it has not being doing its job properly up to now instead of allowing legislation the time it needs to be properly discussed.

I mention another example of the lack of respect for democracy. Today, we have the launch of a report from the Joint Committee on International Surrogacy. My colleague, Senator Keogan, who wanted to present a minority report but was not facilitated in doing so, points out that none of the potential witnesses who had valid dissenting views and questions about commercial surrogacy to put to the committee was allowed to participate. They were purposely and tactically excluded. It seems to me that surrogacy is one of those issues where we increasingly have government by media. There is a one-sided, soft-focused presentation on radio, but one would expect the national Parliament, Oireachtas Éireann, to make sure there would be thorough and fair scrutiny in its Chamber debates and in its committee.Senator Chambers and I had our disagreements on the Oireachtas all-party committee on the eighth amendment. I had concerns about the lack of fairness accorded to different sides of the argument. We fought and succeeded in making sure there was a certain hearing of different sides of the issue. That has not happened with the Joint Committee on International Surrogacy. In fact, the only public thing we have seen from it so far was the disgraceful treatment of my colleague, Senator Keogan, by fellow Senators and by Deputies. She was effectively bullied for having a different view and communicating it respectfully. That is a stain on our democracy. The Oireachtas must rise to the challenge we face in these times. We cannot be the place where dissenting voices get cancelled. We have to be the remedy to that problem in our society by insisting that people who have mandates of various kinds get to represent the views of their electorate fully and thoroughly. That starts with not guillotining legislation and continues with committees being ready to hear different points of view instead of just coming with one-sided reports and recommendations.