Rónán Mullen
National University of Ireland · Independent · Ireland
“The fun side of her personality certainly came out during her participation in "Strictly Come Dancing". I think she had the humility to see that even if on occasions she could be seen as cutting a slightly absurd figure, she used that to generate affection and attention for the points of view she held a deep conviction for.”
“I also welcome our French dignitary and say, Vive la France ce soir et vive le Chemin de St. Jacques en France, I would say, à titre personnel. I do not think I was the only one in this House who was very shocked and upset by the news of the murder of Ann Widdecombe last Friday.”
“This Bill, I think, is the opportunity for the Government to recognise that it is not just extreme or violent pornography that is the problem.”
“Teresa's in Clarendon Street at 12.45 p.m. It is time for us all to reflect on the risks people in public life face, not just during their parliamentary careers but afterwards as well. Let us hope for a more secure and safer society for us all where people can express their ideas in a forthright and honest way and not be harmed for that.”
“He is so worried about adult privacy rights that he is not willing to commit to what is needed to protect children from being able to access pornography now. There is one thing the Minister of State did not say. He said that there is already existing online safety regulation restricting access to pornography, but is it working?”
“I acknowledge the work done by Coimisiún na Meán as the regulator in the online space. With all it has on, its role requiring parental controls, reporting, flagging and complaint mechanisms is important. It is undoubtedly attempting to fulfil its remit in demanding age assurance mechanisms of online platforms.”
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“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus roimh an mBille tábhachtach seo. I will not say much other than to signal my support for this important and humane legislation. I commend the Fianna Fáil Senators, all those involved and the Minister on bringing this forward. These are the better moments in our society when family members and loved ones act out of their own grief and pain to seek change in some way as a fitting memorial to person they have lost but also in solidarity with others who may have been similarly affected or might be affected. That is always very impressive. A lot of us have great admiration, for example, for the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, which grew out of a family's loss of a loved one abroad. Their fundraising to bring him home led to them acting in solidarity with others who find themselves in a similar position.”
“Sooner or later, we have to move the conversation beyond the question of just the software to the hardware and ask the questions about whether, why and when young people should be enabled to have smartphones, including the question of whether it should be possible to legislate to prevent them being brought to school and so on. I would like a debate on all of these issues very soon with the relevant Minister.”
“What is necessary is that there would be legislation putting requirements on tech companies restricting access to under-16s around the creation of social media accounts because it is primarily through the existence of social media accounts that young people can be targeted by strangers, addictive advertising and so on. This should not be about creating and requiring each person to have some sort of a digital identity before they can access social media. However, we must recognise that social media is only one aspect of the problem facing young people in regard to Internet engagement. The toxic trio are, in fact, pornography, social media and video games. Video games in particular feed addictive tendencies and, again, involve young people being very often approached by strangers.”
“I welcome the UK Government's decision to embark on policies that will restrict access to social media for under-16s. My first hope, of course, is that the Irish Government will follow suit. There has been a lot of talk and hints, particularly from the Tánaiste in recent days, that Ireland might go in this direction as well. That would be welcome in itself but how it is done is as important as what is done. There is a concern in some quarters that the Government, under the guise of acting in children's best interests, would seek to exert control and surveillance generally over people's access to the Internet, including social media. There is a concern, for example, about the proposals, to roll in a digital ID system. These issues should be kept completely separate.”
“However, it remains to be seen the extent to which the structures we have established for media regulation in Ireland actually do ensure the necessary facilitation of diverse opinions across our society being treated with equal respect and being fully facilitated in the media that are being regulated.”
“On the one hand, there are very negative forces availing of the platform it gives them to amplify points of view that are not necessarily based in fact. However, on the other hand, the new digital space has brought a welcome democratisation whereby points of view that simply have not been permitted to be expressed in the mainstream are actually allowed to be heard. That is actually a very good thing. To sum up my comments, I have absolutely no objection to any of the provisions in the legislation before us today. We have to bring forward this legislation. As was said, it is directly applicable, coming from our European Union obligations.”
“It must certainly be about media freedom from excessive state influence. However, there is also a need for scrutiny of the media itself to make sure it has enough diversity within its own ranks so as to ensure the reflection of the full range of opinions on issues in society. Freedom of expression is vital to the functioning of a democracy. If one takes the very difficult area of migration, where important questions need to be asked about what is happening in our society and how we are going to manage it, there is a sense out there that the establishment media cannot be fully trusted to let the full range of points of view be heard. In the long term, that is not good for our democracy. We have to deal with the paradoxical situation that social media and new digital media in some ways are the Wild West.”
“In respect of the role of Coimisiún na Meán in scrutinising or being in charge of advertising by public bodies, it is important there is transparency and it is important there would not be discrimination. A point I have repeatedly put is that there is a danger of groupthink in the Irish media, though not necessarily because of State control or monopolisation. I have focused in particular in the past about a failure in RTÉ, for example, to cover a range of different points of view across a range of controversial social issues. Take migration, for example. Take debates about controversies about trans issues and so on. There is a perception that the establishment media looks over its shoulder at what the Government expects it to say to curate the national debate, so to speak. Media freedom must be about more.”
“It is clear to me that when we talk about the important issue of media freedom we think of jurisdictions like Hungary, for example, where a lot of very understandable criticism was made around excessive state control of media. There is also the danger of excessive monopolisation in media ownership and another concern that was raised yesterday is the fact that a number of our local radio stations are being bought up by, in some cases, international organisations. Whether there is anything in this legislation or elsewhere that addresses this, I think most people regret it when they hear that a long-established local newspaper or radio station has been bought up by a much larger body and sometimes an international body. People wonder how well they can continue to reflect local concerns and issues when that is happening.”
“There is ambivalence about whether it is entirely desirable that Coimisiún na Meán is becoming the regulatory behemoth that it is, with a very large inflow of staff and so on. It looks like we are entering into a highly regulated environment. While that is welcome in some ways and regulation is necessary, I sometimes wonder whether regulators can also become tyrants. One of the issues I have warned about and raised with Coimisiún na Meán is the potential conflict between its role as a dispenser of funding to media on one hand and any perception that it might be seeking to curate the mood around certain issues on the other. For example, Coimisiún na Meán has a role in promoting diversity and various good things but that, in a sense, is a political goal. My concern is that we are not looking sufficiently at what diversity actually means.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I welcome this Bill and the essence of it, which, as the Minister of State has set out, focuses principally on media mergers and acquisitions, as well as on the important issue of advertising by public bodies. I have a few points to make. In relation to media mergers and acquisitions, we had representatives of the Department, Coimisiún na Meán and, indeed, the independent radio sector before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport yesterday. As the Minister will know, there is considerable concern at the effect that the broadcast levy is having, particularly on smaller independent media organisations. Basing that levy on turnover seems to me to be very problematic in circumstances where organisations might have a large turnover but a very tight profit margin.”
“I believe that the Minister, Deputy Foley, does not like those particular kinds of books but this is what happens when people get into Government and they are captured. They think if they stray beyond supporting certain ideologies, they will lose their position or place. That is shameful on the part of the Minister and it is shameful on the part of the Government. We need a debate on the very issue Mr. McKenna has raised and we need to ask questions about why an organisation that gets public funding, like Children's Books Ireland, is pushing sexual material at young children at ages that are inappropriate. It is completely wrong and we need a debate on this.”
“This is very relevant because when we privilege certain organisations, we see things like what happened last week with the Minister, Deputy Norma Foley. She was challenged and asked about highly inappropriate books being pushed at children by Children's Books Ireland, the same organisation that is looking for €68 million of taxpayer's money to fund modern, inclusive books in libraries. It is highly inappropriate sexual material that is being pushed at children as young as 15. Her glib answer was to say she had not seen the book and it is a problem for parents to deal with. That negligence on the Minister's part is unacceptable. The former Minister, Charlie Flanagan, gave the lie to even that by saying he approached her about the very same book in 2023 and talked about the inappropriate content and she laughed in his face.”
“He says State institutions should seek to maintain a position of neutrality on matters that remain the subject of significant moral, philosophical, religious and societal debate. He request that State Departments review their use of such symbols and consider adopting branding that is inclusive of all citizens, regardless of beliefs, and remains focused on the core functions and responsibility of the Departments in question. He says the flying of flags, other than the national or EU flag, outside of Government Buildings is highly inappropriate. I think he is absolutely right on every point. I ask that we have a debate on the privileging of certain ideas, ideologies and symbols at taxpayers' expense by Government Departments.”
“Many of us, the Cathaoirleach included, will have received a very reasonable letter from Mr. Declan McKenna, not previously known to me, regarding the use of LGBT and transgender pride colours within the branding and public communications of Government Departments. He specifies the education Department. He says the inclusion of these symbols may be perceived as endorsing particular views on gender identity and sexuality that are not shared by all citizens. He stresses he fully supports the dignity and respectful treatment of every person, regardless of background or beliefs, but he does not believe that a Government Department should be seen to promote any particular ideology concerning gender or society. Mr. McKenna says the primary remit of the Government is to serve all citizens, children, young people and families impartially.”
“Young people are being damaged by their exposure to pornography and it seems Europe is not acting strongly enough to protect them in this area. I would be grateful for our guests' thoughts and views on that.”
“The Minister for communications said to us at a committee meeting today that European countries take different points of view. Some have a laissez-faire approach to restrictions on young people's access to media. What are the MEPs' views? Can the European Parliament take an initiative in this area? Will we hear the voice of Parliament? it is important that Ireland would legislate on its own for whatever we believe to be in the common good, but what happens in Europe matters. I add to that the concern about the widespread availability of pornography and the impact that is having on young people. It seems bizarre that it is easier for a young person to access pornography online than to buy a pair of shoes, gamble or buy vapes, for which they would be required to use a credit card.”
“I welcome the MEPs and thank them for being with us. Many parents across Europe are concerned about the problems caused by their children having excessive, and excessively early, exposure to screen time, particularly the challenge posed by young people's access to social media. Many countries are taking their own initiative on this matter. Energy has been focused on the specific issue of whether tech companies should be prevented from opening social media accounts for young people. There is widespread misunderstanding of this issue. Some people think what is being posited is a ban on young people accessing social media. That is not what it is about; it is about whether young people should be able to open accounts because it is through accounts that tech companies challenge.”
“That is why the three-day waiting period is so important. It is also why we need to consider our current abortion situation. It was also horrendous that that legislation would have effectively sought to widen the grounds for abortion based on disability in the context of severe foetal anomaly. Thanks be to God, that Bill failed. Can we rediscover our enthusiasm for talking about how we might reduce abortions, and work together to do that, regardless of our different perspectives on whether abortion should be legal?”
“Our figures have gone up hugely since abortion was legalised. Even if there is no sign of any change in the law about whether abortion should be permissible, can we please get back to a situation where the centre ground of politics agrees that abortion is regrettable and that we should work to prevent abortions? That means encouraging people to give life, putting the supports in place and consciously referencing the humanity of the unborn child. That is not to put anybody in a difficult position, but to try, in the way that we try with so many other issues of public health, from smoking to other issues, to encourage positive behaviours. We should all regard it as a tragedy when an abortion takes place. It is the ending of a life. In many cases, although not in every case, there is also regret, and sometimes long-term regret.”
“Given that human life, human dignity and human happiness are at stake in this crisis situation, whatever view you take of abortion and its legality, it beggars belief that any politician would want to remove a provision in law that gives women the space to consider their situation, given what we know about what some of them do when they are given that space. To turn this into a cold-hearted issue of rights when, in fact, there has been a beneficial impact of this three-day waiting period, is simply wrong. It seems to be a strategy of the left, in particular, in politics to keep pushing to widen access to abortion, perhaps as a tactic to prevent us from considering the situation that exists and whether it should be adjusted. The sad fact is that one in six pregnancies in Ireland now ends in abortion.”
“By a strong majority, in the Dáil last night, the Social Democrats Bill to remove the three-day waiting period for abortion was solidly defeated. That is something worth noting in this House. It is a very welcome development. It was the journalist, Brenda Power, who pointed out that in 2024, 2,000 women who had an initial consultation for an abortion did not go ahead with it. Brenda Power pointed out that even if one allows that 1,000 of those were cases where pregnancies sadly ended in miscarriage, the fact remains that many women have been enabled and given the space to change their minds about abortion because of the three-day waiting period.”
“I was delighted to see a recent decision of the court was given to me fully translated into Irish. There is a lot of good happening with the EU but there are failings. There is also a failing to get enough Irish people working in the institutions. This is one where the Government needs to get the finger out. Ní féidir é seo a chur ar an méar fhada a thuilleadh. Is gá gníomhú anois chun dul i ngleic leis an bhfadhb seo.”
“I thank the Minister of State for his reply. If we cannot solve this during the Irish Presidency of the European Union, when can it be solved? I was in Luxembourg and Brussels last week. In Brussels, I was taking part in an interparliamentary conference with MEPs and representatives from different parliaments. On the note on translation, we were told there would be translation and interpretation available in all of the European languages except Gaelic - it was pronounced like the Americans sometimes pronounce Gaelic for Irish. I was very disappointed to see that. On the other hand, in the European institutions in Luxembourg we met with the Irish judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Our former Seanadóir, Eugene Regan, was there, as were Judge Colm Mac Eochaidh and Judge Suzanne Kingston.”
“How many permanent interpreter positions would be required to allow Members to exercise their right to speak Irish in committee and delegation meetings under rule 174 of the rules of procedure? How many extra permanent translator and proofreader positions in the Irish-language department of the Directorate-General for Translation would be required to allow Members to exercise their right to read documents in Irish in committee and delegation meetings under the rules of procedure and end the derogation on the use of Irish in Parliament? Finally, is the Government concerned that we are not filling our quota of posts at EU level because of this derogation, despite the fact that Ireland is paying into translation and interpretation funds like every other country?”
“Cé mhéad post buan breise d'aistritheoirí agus do phrofléithteoirí sa rannóg Gaeilge de chuid Ard-Stiúrthóireacht an Aistriúcháin a bheadh ag teastáil chun ligean d'Fheisirí a gceart chun cáipéisí a léamh as Gaeilge a fheidhmiú i gcruinnithe coiste agus toscaireachta faoi na rialacha nós imeachta, agus deireadh a chur leis an maolú ar úsáid na Gaeilge sa Pharlaimint? An bhfuil an Rialtas buartha nach bhfuil ár gcuóta post san Aontas Eorpach á líonadh againn mar gheall ar an maolú seo, in ainneoin go bhfuil Éire ag íoc isteach sna cistí aistriúcháin agus ateangaireachta cosúil le gach tír eile? What specific measures are being put in place to ensure the Parliament’s interpretation service can provide Irish during our Council Presidency from 1 July? How many Irish-language staff and interpreters are currently recruited by the Parliament?”
“The Maltese Government resolved the derogation on the use of Maltese in Parliament earlier this year. Now is the time for the Irish Government to take an immediate step likewise. I will ask the Minister of State the following questions: cad iad na bearta sonracha atá curtha i bhfeidhm chun a chinntiú gur féidir le seirbhís ateangaireachta Pharlaimint na hEorpa ateangaireacht Ghaeilge a chur ar fáil le linn Uachtaránacht na hÉireann ar an gComhairle ón 1 Iúil 2026? Cé mhéad ateangaire foirne don Ghaeilge atá earcaithe ag Parlaimint na hEorpa faoi láthair? Cé mhéad post buan d'ateangairí a bheidh ag teastáil chun ligean d'Fheisirí a gceart chun Gaeilge a labhairt a fheidhmiú i gcruinnithe coiste agus toscaireachta faoi riail 174 de na rialacha nós imeachta?”
“The European Parliament alone has decided not to employ a full team of Irish language translators to deal with the written word or create any permanent position for Irish language interpreters in Parliament to deal with spoken Irish. This means that MEPs do not have the opportunity to use Irish in the work of the committees of the Parliament, where most of the Parliament’s work is done. In the context of our upcoming Presidency of the European Union and the Council, the Government must require the European Parliament to create the necessary permanent posts. There must be six Irish-language translator posts, two Irish-language proofreader posts and three Irish language interpreter posts, to be filled either on a permanent basis or by temporary contract staff as long as those permanent jobs are in place.”
“Is éard atá i gceist agam ná sé phost d’aistritheoirí, dhá phost do phrofléitheoirí Gaeilge agus trí phost d’ateangairí Gaeilge, agus iad a líonadh le daoine ar chonarthaí buana nó sealadacha ach na poist bhuana sin a bheith ann. Dála an scéil, réitigh Rialtas Mhálta an maolú ar úsáid na Máltaise sa Pharlaimint níos luaithe i mbliana. Is gá do Rialtas na hÉireann gníomhú láithreach, go háirithe i gcomhthéacs Uachtaránacht na hÉireann ar an Aontas Eorpach agus ar Chomhairle na nAirí atá ag teacht chun cinn. As the Minister of State knows, Irish has been a full official working language of the European Union since the beginning of 2022, pursuant to a regulation.”
“Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Dillon. Cé go bhfuil stádas iomlán mar theanga oifigiúil is oibre ag an nGaeilge san Aontas Eorpach ó thús na bliana 2022 de bhun rialacháin, ta cinneadh déanta ag Parlaimint na hEorpa amháin gan foireann iomlán aistritheoirí Gaeilge a fhostú le plé leis an bhfocal scríofa agus gan post buan ar bith a chruthú d’ateangairí Gaeilge sa Pharlaimint chun plé leis an nGaeilge labhartha. Fágann sé sin nach bhfuil an deis ag Feisirí an Ghaeilge a úsáid in obair choistí na Parlaiminte, áit a ndéantar formhór obair na Parlaiminte. Is gá go n-éileoidh an Rialtas go gcruthóidh Parlaimint na hEorpa na poist bhuana a bhfuil gá leo.”
“There is nothing like this protection being recommended by the committee in respect of the harms posed by pornography and social media accounts. I am afraid some good work was done but there was a real failure to have enough guts to grasp the nettle for the sake of the children of this country and their very concerned families. This is an issue they will have to come back to and they will have to question their thinking and caution on this.”
“I asked the committee to hear from experts on the harms done by excessive screen and social media time, people such as Professor Jonathan Haidt, and there was an opportunity to hear from such experts, but the committee declined to do so. The second point is the failure to take seriously enough the need to make it a crime and for there to be a penalty for platforms allowing underage persons to access pornography online. Again, huge danger is done here. The committee talks about risk assessment, graduated approaches and regulation, but it is not in touch with the concern of parents and the actual harms done by exposure of young people to pornography. For example, if you were to try to buy vaping or nicotine products online, you would have to use a credit card to show, among other things, that you are over 18.”
“One is to pay serious attention to the calls for a ban on platforms allowing persons under 16 to open social media accounts. The committee failed to understand it is the opening of accounts that is in play, it is not about banning children from accessing social media directly. Without consulting properly with parents and experts on the harms excessive and early use of social media is causing, and without waiting to see how the Australian policy in particular evolves over time, the committee has rushed a judgment in its commentary, suggesting that a ban is somehow a bad idea without even understanding the precise measure that is in place and examining it closely. That is really regrettable.”
“First, Senator Keogan wished to congratulate, as do I, our colleague, Senator Nicole Ryan, and we wish baby Réidín Lydia a long, happy, healthy and productive life, inside or outside of Seanad Éireann. I want to mention this morning the report the Oireachtas joint committee on communications, culture and media - on which I sit - has produced regarding online safety. I want to be fair here and acknowledge the good work done by committee colleagues and I welcome their recommendations, particularly the recommendation on dealing with harmful recommender algorithm systems. That is very helpful, and I hope it will inform Government policy and objectives. However, I have regrettably, but sincerely, criticised a failure by the committee to grasp the nettle on two points.”
“Tá sé fíorthábhachtach go dtapódh an Rialtas an deis anois chun a chinntiú go bhfuil seirbhís aistriúchán ceart acu siúd ar mhaith leo labhairt i nGaeilge agus doiciméid a léamh i nGaeilge nuair atá fostaíocht ar fáil d'Éireannaigh chun obair aistriúchán a dhéanamh in institiúidí na hEorpa. Ba chóir go mbeimis ag baint feidhm as sin ar fad.”
“The question has to be asked, because we now have our Presidency coming up, if there are specific measures being put in place to ensure that the European Parliament's interpretation service can provide Irish interpretation during the Council Presidency. We need to know how many Irish language staff interpreters are currently employed by the parliament, how many permanent interpreter positions would be needed to allow members to be able to speak in committees and delegation meetings, and how many extra permanent translator and proofreader positions will be needed in DG TRAD Gaeilge in order to let members exercise their right to read documents in Irish in committee and delegation meetings. The Government should be concerned that we are not filling our quota of posts at EU level because of this derogation.”
“However, one of the guides to interpretation of that EU conference said, "Please also note that the meeting will be held in full linguistic regime, with the exception of Gaelic." Now, it was obviously referring to Gaeilge. It is a fact that Ireland has not filled its quota of places at EU level for translators and interpreters. It is also a fact that, currently, the European Parliament's interpretation service is not providing for the right of Members of Parliament to exercise their right to speak Irish in committee and delegation meetings under Rule 174 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament.”
“I wish to support what Senator Murphy had to say about the rights of turf-cutting families and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It is a topic I will return to myself but I will say that wherever there is any ambiguity in the law, there is a time-honoured principle that it has to be resolved in favour of the person who would be affected by it. I was at a very interesting conference yesterday on the subject of the role of the EU and its member states in supporting global accountability mechanisms, including universal jurisdiction, international courts and special tribunals. I will return to that later because we dealt with the very troubling phenomenon of judges of the International Criminal Court being sanctioned by the US Administration.”
“If we can reserve places for overseas students, surely we can find ways to reserve places for students who will commit to staying in Ireland for six or eight years. The other issue is the prohibitive cost of entry into postgraduate medicine. Postgraduate entry medics would be less inclined to go abroad. They are the ones who have to face fees of €18,000 per year or €60,000 per year to be invested in their training. That is inequitable. We need to encourage graduate entry medicine. We need a debate about what we are going to do to address this urgent problem of ensuring we have an adequate number of doctors and medical personnel to provide healthcare to our people in the future.”
“What is actually happening in our medical schools is that we have approximately 600 places for Irish or EU medical students and a similar number of places for non-EU students. A significant number of young Irish doctors go abroad, as we all know, and do not return. Statistics are hard to come by but it would seem that approximately 60% go abroad after internship and half of those do not return within ten years. We might expect that at the very best, approximately 400 new doctors per year from undergraduate medicine studies will stay here. That is half our need. We need more Irish people studying medicine and we need more Irish people staying in Ireland after their studies. Two issues need to be considered. How about making working in Ireland a condition for approximately 50% of Irish or EU college places?”
“I wish to raise our need to ensure we have enough doctors into the future. A Parliamentary Budget Office report in 2024 on the cost of non-consultant hospital doctors and consultants in a consultant-delivered health service stated we would need more than 9,000 additional hospital doctors within 20 years to meet the demands of our growing and ageing population. Having that number of extra staff in place by 2042 would cost the Exchequer approximately €2.2 billion more per year. To that we can add an additional 1,000 GPs. We need to be adding 500 medics per year after allowing for retirements, etc. As there are several hundred retirements per year, it means approximately 800 doctors per year are needed. Let us work with that figure of 800.”
“The kinds of excuses I hear for not introducing some kind of ban have to do with putting pressure on parents or children, or children finding other sources, maybe more unregulated spaces. All that seems to do is mirror the talking points we get from big tech about this. What needs to be focused on here is not a blanket ban on social media access for children per se but, as they have done in Australia, a ban on accounts being created by children because it is when accounts are created that children on social media can be particularly targeted. Of course, such a social media accounts ban is a necessary but not sufficient condition for improvement in this area. We need to look at design integrated functions that cause problems like infinite scroll, recommender systems, algorithms and so on. I say "well done" to the British House of Lords.”
“For us in the Seanad, also in a review Chamber, it would be a very positive development if we kept the ball pucked out to the Government in the same way on legislation from time to time by insisting that certain issues be visited and revisited. We did with some considerable success some years ago in the context of hate speech, but we should do more of it in this House. My second point has to do with the merits of the case for a social media ban. I worry that our Government could be too deferential to big tech in all of this. I am also unimpressed by supposed defenders of children's rights and welfare, such as the Children's Rights Alliance, who seem to me to be sometimes more interested in vindicating children's rights even if it comes at the expense of their welfare.”
“I welcome the fact that the British Government has now committed to introducing social media restrictions for under-16s. It is going to consult on whether to introduce an outright ban, but what is guaranteed is that some form of age or functionality restriction will be brought in. The first point I would like to make is that this has come about as a result from pressure from the House of Lords, which on four occasions voted for amendments to the UK Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill that were brought forward by Opposition members. I would like to point to what a healthy sign that is of a democracy.”
“The fact that they do not have that or that they might be under pressure is not a reason not to recalibrate our system in order that councillors have more powers and responsibilities and that Members of the Oireachtas, while they would continue to have a representative and intermediating role, would focus more on legislation. I hope the Minister will not just say nice things about this proposal but give us some kind of commitment that the Government will reflect carefully on this and take some action because there is no good reason to oppose it.”
“Nothing will happen so quickly there that would give us any justification to do nothing now. This issue needs to be addressed. I also sympathise with what Senator Murphy had to say about his concern for rural Ireland and the need to ensure continued fair representation for counties with lower populations. We probably have that advantage in the Seanad. Historically and currently, there is that strong representation. The Senator is right, however, and others here have said it, that we need a less centralised system with more responsibility and potential for councillors.”
“I am not so sure that we should be talking, or that we have any reason to talk, about a unity referendum being imminent, as has been suggested, but one would imagine that if one were to follow the Westminster model, given that there are about 2 million people in the North and they have 18 MPs, we would have 54 under such a formula for a population of 6 million. It would feel like we were back in the convention centre. I suppose the fact that there is an Assembly in the North makes the difference. What we are proposing here is reasonable, namely, that there would be an appropriate cap on Dáil and Seanad representation, given the population we have and are likely to have in the near future. Talk of future arrangements in the North is just a distraction.”
“Paradoxically, while I am very glad on one level that this motion is going through unopposed this evening, in a way I would have liked if the Government had tabled some kind of amendment to say that it would take this very important proposal forward, study it and come back within a certain timeframe with some kind of proposal. Maybe the Minister of State will deliver accordingly in his speech. This is too important to be left on the shelf. Senator McDowell and we all are really proposing that we cannot afford a méadú as cuimse in the representation in the context of an increasing population. We would have, if there were a population of 6 million, a minimum of 200 TDs under the current constitutional formula and a maximum of 300.”
“Gabhaim buíochas le mo chomhghleacaithe. I commend Senator McDowell on leading us forward with this very good proposal. I note what my good friend and colleague Senator Murphy said, that any proposal to amend the Constitution should be approached with precision and care. I could not agree with him more. Somebody should have told the previous Government about that because it presented two referendum proposals that were certainly not approached or served up with precision and care, unless they were caring precisely to bamboozle the public and to persuade them to support something they should not - and, as it turned out, did not - support. I take Senator Murphy's point that one has to be careful about the preparation of referendums.”
“There is no point in pretending that this is just governments acting in some kind of consultative way to help the court make up its mind. There is an awful lot more direction involved in this, and that is as it should be.”