Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Five years and eight months ago, the Taoiseach delivered an address to this House nine months after his appointment as Taoiseach on St. Brigid's Day, Lá Fhéile Bríde. He told us he wanted to share his thoughts on the reform of Irish politics. He told us that while he had originally supported the abolition of the Seanad, the people had spoken and the matter would not be revisited. He told us his programme for Government committed him to the implementation of the Manning report, and he added that he was happy to do so. He told us a committee would be established to consider and report, with specific proposals to implement the Manning report. He said his timeframe was to put in place changes that would be used to elect the Seanad after next. That is at the next general election. In other words, he said the Seanad would be elected on a new basis after the forthcoming general election in a year's time.

The Taoiseach said: "There will be universal suffrage using the panel system, allowing people to choose which one suits them best." He promised provision for online registration and the downloading of ballot papers. He said he would also implement the referendum of 1979 to open up the university franchise to all third level graduates. He promised one person, one vote. He promised Northern Ireland Members but he dropped Ian Marshall. He praised the work of Billy Lawless and said he supported the election of more diaspora Senators but he dropped Billy Lawless. The Taoiseach did none of the things he said he would do on that day.

The all-party Seanad reform implementation group, which I chaired, carried out its functions and presented the Taoiseach with a report in late 2018, that same year. When I met with the Taoiseach subsequently to discuss the report in his office, he indicated to me that the Government would not legislate on the matter and would only permit a free vote among Dáil Deputies if the Bill was introduced by anybody else.I regret to say that discussion in the Taoiseach's office, concerning his proposed reform of Seanad Éireann, marked the lowest point of political cynicism I have encountered since first being elected to the Oireachtas in 1987. We have Mr. Tomás Heneghan today in the Chamber, who brought a court challenge to force the Government to reform the Seanad across the board, as it had promised. He partly succeeded in the Supreme Court recently, where the Taoiseach's Government had sent its Attorney General to seek a further five years to bring about even the university Bill reform. He succeeded in the Supreme Court as far as the university seats are concerned, but there has been no further indication of willingness to reform the way in which this Chamber is elected. Under the Taoiseach’s stewardship, every commitment he personally made on 1 February 2018 in this House, which some of us were naive enough to believe, has been cynically discarded.

There will be a political price to pay for reneging on the political promises he made to us on 1 February 2018. One just has to look at the newspapers today. I ask the Taoiseach to look at the newspapers today, to take a long, hard look in the political mirror and to ask himself whether there is not going to be a heavy political price for breaking commitments of that kind made in public, in accordance with the expressed wish of the people to reform this Chamber. They voted to retain this Chamber. They were promised by successive Governments, including by the Taoiseach in this Chamber, that there would be reform, and there has been a cynical abandonment of all that such that, in the current programme for Government, there is not even a mention of Seanad reform. Shame on the Taoiseach. He has time to make some redress for this abandonment of his commitments and I call on him to do so.