Sen. Ó Brolcháin calls for political reform

In the Order of Business in the Senate on the 24th November 2010, Senator Niall Ó Brolcháin called for a debate on reforming the political system.

Transcript:
Sen. Ó Brolcháin: "I note the comments this morning of the leaders of the main Opposition parties which were extremely responsible. I very much welcome this. I call on the Leader to arrange a debate on systemic change to our political system which does not cope well in a time of crisis and leads to barracking and pettiness on the part of the Opposition."

"It is a time for calm and cool heads. As Senators on the other side said, we are in the final days of the Government and it is important that we do not play politics such that we add to the mess in the difficult situation in which we find ourselves. There is now clarity, but we must look forward. We had enormous difficulties in the 1980s with which our system did not cope. It was because of the generosity of Alan Dukes at the time that we got through that crisis. This is also a time for generosity. The Green Party has called for consensus, but that request was thrown back in our faces. We felt it was the way forward. We could have saved ourselves much anguish if that offer had been taken up. Nevertheless, we need to look at our political system, on which we need a proper debate. We need to have facilities in order that in a time of crisis we can work together for the greater good. That must happen now, although it is not the norm in our system. In Rome, in times of crisis, a dictator was appointed to look after the system because it was considered that was the way to do things."

"We need a new style of politics in a time of major national crisis."

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Ireland
• Senate
• Seanad
• political reform