Order of Business - 13th September 2007

Order of Business - 13th September 2007

I wish to add my voice to those that have congratulated the Cathaoirleach on his election to this distinguished post. I can think of nobody better equipped to fill the role. I met Senator Moylan in the car park when I had just learnt that he would be Cathaoirleach and said privately, as I am happy to say here, that he is an outstanding choice. As Government Whip of the Fianna Fáil group in the Seanad, he operated with courtesy, fairness and integrity, and showed himself to be hard-working and amenable to suggestion. Those are the qualities needed in this role.
It is a tribute to the Senator that there was no election. In the past I proposed Members from the Independent group as candidates for Cathaoirleach because I thought it important in a democracy that we should have an election, but I am happy that Senator Moylan is an outstanding candidate and I look forward to working with him.
I was entertained by the Cathaoirleach’s reference to his nomination by his colleagues on the left and wondered was it a reference to the socialism of the Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern.

Senator Donie Cassidy: He is the Senator’s local Deputy.

Senator David Norris: Senator Cassidy, the restored Leader of the House, referred to the media in trenchant terms. We do not need to be frightened. There are many new Senators here, including Senator Eoghan Harris who, having got it so spectacularly wrong on the war in Iraq, may find that in his reportage from the battlefront here in Seanad Éireann he is able to give the people who read the largest selling newspaper in the country the real news.

I congratulate my good colleague and friend, the longest serving Member of this House, and a poll topper, Senator Ross, on the dignity and courage with which he spoke before Senator Moylan attained his present eminence.
I am greatly encouraged by the universal appetite for Seanad reform which usually dwindles after the first day. To encourage it to continue, I have placed on the Order Paper as No. 15, a proposal that we do something about this and adopt the principal recommendations of the report on Seanad reform. I note with interest that for some technical reasons, the names of my colleagues, Senators O’Toole and Ross, are not on the motion. I am sure they will be there, however, by the time we return. I will put it before the House and I ask the Government Members to show their cards by voting for the proposals for Seanad, not the wishy-washy drivel that we all talk about. Let us see them vote for those concrete proposals. That will be a good day.
We have nothing to fear from the further democratisation of the Seanad. I am not ashamed to represent university graduates and do not deprecate them. It is a fine achievement for people to have university degrees. It does not make them better than other people but if the entire panel system had been operated, the university seats would not have been left on their lonely eminence as the only fully democratic section of the Seanad. I remind Senator Cassidy that Senator Ross and I got approximately 5,500 votes each.

Senator Donie Cassidy: I thought I was in the Seanad because I was elected.

Senator David Norris: Does the Senator mean he was elected to the Dáil? There is not one Member on the Government side of the House who received more than approximately 100 real votes. To persuade the people of the fiction that they are genuinely elected, their votes must be multiplied by a factor of 1,000 so that a gullible public will consume the figures.