Meanwhile back at the Seanad… week number? No number – it was the week they went to war!

I’ve been a bit preoccupied and therefore didn’t manage to post a Seanad report last week. But no worries, for events have moved on… oh yes. They’ve moved on alright. At the foot of this piece there’s an interesting snippet about a European link up that had entirely slipped my mind – so if you’re tired of the Seanad even before we begin scroll down and link out. But… to the main focus of this post…

It’s said of some that they had a good war – whatever the war may be… that they were able to step up to the plate, look themselves in the eye afterwards and feel comfortable in their own skin. Can the same be said of our own brave inhabitants (or is it denizens?) of the Seanad.

Judge for yourselves after their latest brush with political danger last week, when the foundations, nay, the structure, nay – the whole edifice of our society stood tottering for five, maybe six, maybe seven, minutes last week as the barbarians, or a select group of them almost… almost made it into the Oireachtas grounds (by the way these were referenced in comments last week, but here’s some more detail).

But…er… didn’t in the end… Now one may think that such actions as we saw outside the Dáil are a pointless waste of time and energy, saw protesters pitted against workers in one part of the public sector which has come out publicly and placed itself in opposition to all of the cuts and therefore entirely counterproductive. But one would be wrong… For they have a meaning and an import greater than we can possibly comprehend. Second chamber… take it away.

Let’s start by naming names, by pointing fingers and ascribing blame!

Senator Terry Leyden: I support the Garda Síochána in its work last night. It is very unfair that certain elements incited people to try to storm the Bastille last night, which was unsuccessful, thanks to the diligence of the Garda Síochána, whose members are on the front line at every protest. I am delighted that Senator Norris did not get out, because it was bad enough before he got out and it would have been worse if he had got out.

An Cathaoirleach: That is not relevant to the Order of Business. It is not appropriate to make comments across the floor about any other Member. I am not allowing that.

Senator Terry Leyden: A certain correspondent in The Irish Times was certainly inciting the riot last night.

An Cathaoirleach: This is not comedy here. This is serious in this Chamber.

Senator Terry Leyden: It is serious when people are rioting outside the House.

An Cathaoirleach: The Senator should not be commenting on anybody. [Indeed, but there's no stopping the irrepressible -wbs]

Senator Terry Leyden: It is very serious when Fintan O’Toole is inciting them. [I see Fintan O'Toole managed to get an apology out of the Senator, at least according to his column in yesterday's IT - wbs]

An Cathaoirleach: I ask the Senator to resume his seat.

There’s more…

Senator Feargal Quinn: If this House is under threat, as it is, it is in our own hands to earn respect, regard and our future. That means we should talk about action, what we are going to do and what should take place rather than merely look to the past. I offer a particular case, one that Senator Walsh has brought up on several occasions. It jolted me when he drew our attention to the cost of the various tribunals and the length of time they are continuing. I have not spoken about this in the past because it seems to me that very often those who speak on it have some kind of vested interest, as can be understood. The Flood, now the Mahon, tribunal has lasted since 1997, some 13 years, as has the Moriarty tribunal. Before that there was a beef tribunal and a bar tribunal. There have been so very many.

One can look at how they handle these affairs in the United States. There is a very interesting book, Illinois Justice, about a tribunal presided over by a Judge Stevens to inquire into bribery allegations in banking some years ago. The judge said he would undertake this on condition that he could determine the final date to be six weeks hence and that he would not extend that date. He did it, starting in mid-June and finishing by the end of July with a conclusion.

There are other ways of doing this. There is the example of the Committee of Public Accounts some years ago which moved, got action and earned respect. If we are going to earn respect in this Chamber we must do something to ensure we deserve it.

Senator Niall Ó Brolcháin: There is anger outside and inside this House, rightly so in both cases and we must acknowledge that. I join Senators Boyle, White, Ormonde and others in calling for a series of debates and initiatives on child protection. As a group of people, the Seanad can make a serious contribution towards child protection. In the same way as the Seanad took the issue of head shops and ran with it in a significant way with success, I would like to see people from all parties working on the area of child protection. It is crucial and probably one of the most important aspects of our society.

The Green Party would like to see the children’s referendum happening as soon as possible.

Senators: Hear, hear.

Senator Niall Ó Brolcháin: It is in the programme for Government and we all must push for it. The difficulties in bringing it forward must be resolved and that is up to all parties. It is important that we all get together to ensure the referendum takes place.

As other Senators have so done, I refer to the protests that occurred outside the Houses last night. The Leader of the House and I were in the lobby of Leinster House and saw what was going on. There were very few politicians in the House last night and I do not know what on earth the people would have done had they broken through. There was a very small number of them. [I may be wrong, but my impression is that there is a Defense Forces detail always on standby. The idea that at any time the Oireachtas was seriously 'under threat' as Senator Quinn puts it is... unlikely - wbs]

The anger is palpable but there is politics behind it, too. There are people who purport to be anti-war yet they use methods of violence to put forward their cause which I see as highly contradictory. We must be wary about this. We saw what happened in Greece where people were killed. We must keep an eye on this matter in this country. Violence can be used for political ends. It has been done in the past and this is not something we can tolerate.

More loose talk of ‘incitement’…

Senator John Hanafin: I share in the calls for a debate on the resolution of our finances. I am clear, as is the Minister, that there will be cuts in spending followed by budgetary measures to raise money. That is clear and has been spelt out to the EU which insisted we get our finances in order. It has given us until 2014 to do so and we are very successfully on track to do that.

It is worth noting, and we should be thankful for it, that the cost of raising money abroad has fallen significantly. To put it in context, we are now paying 4% to 4.5% for moneys abroad but were paying 16% at a time when our debt was more than 100% of gross domestic product and when unemployment and inflation were both 18%. We have turned a corner, as has been recognised by the Opposition this morning. It is time for confidence to return and for us to speak confidently.

With that in mind, is it not time that we called a spade a spade and said that what happened last night was idiotic, an inane attempt to ape what is happening in Greece? We saw the logical conclusion of anarchy on the streets in Greece when three people were burnt alive in a bank. What happened last night was unacceptable but everybody and anybody who incited people in any way to do that bears a responsibility.

Some are in no doubt…

Senator Joe O’Reilly: At the outset I make the point that it is important for nobody in the House to make any reference to last night’s events outside these gates in any ambivalent fashion or in such a way as to give substance or support for those actions. It was blatant thuggery, which is unacceptable, and the staff of the Houses and the Garda Síochána should be congratulated in their curtailment of it. No words spoken in the House by any Member should be slightly ambiguous about it. What happened was a disgrace.

Senator Eoghan Harris: Tell that to Senator Buttimer.

Ah, interesting, so what did Senator Buttimer say that so riles the father of the house (he’s not really, but you know what I mean)…

Senator Jerry Buttimer: I join Senator Fitzgerald in asking for a series of debates on the pre-budget submissions. Yesterday’s edition of The New York Times had a very good piece opposite the editorial page which suggested that the tooth fairy is dead and we are now engaging in a period of root canal politics. It was a very good piece of journalism because many unpalatable choices are being faced and will not be easy for people to digest. Last night we had the manifestation of the public’s anger at the Government’s failed policy. While I do not support violence or thuggery, the people have a right to vent their frustration. Just because we live in a bubble inside Leinster House does not mean we should lose our sense of reality. Hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens are struggling faoi bhrú under pressure every day, some of it made by themselves but the majority made by bad economic decisions taken by Government. It is important for the Members opposite to recognise that cutbacks hurt the old, the poor, the handicapped and the sick. Fianna Fáil used a similar slogan in 1987. In 2010 it is absolutely relevant to the ordinary people.

Shocking… shocking I tell you. That Senator Buttimer could be so ambiguous… so… supportive of rioting… er… er… You know if this level of argument is what swayed some people in RTÉ back in the day you’d really have to wonder.

Meanwhile kind words for unions… yes indeed… trade unions…

Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú: The disturbance at the gates of Leinster House last night is a reminder of how much we owe the organised trade union movement in this country. The leadership – I salute the comments of Mr. Jack O’Connor in recent times – and the provision of a voice to people who are angry because they have lost jobs or are under very severe pressure has been the right way to approach the crisis we are experiencing. As we know, the disturbance last night will not provide a single job.

And more from the father figure…

Senator Eoghan Harris: Senator Ó Murchú was correct to say we should not overstate yesterday’s demonstration. It was valuable, in that it threw into sharp relief the behaviour of the mass of the Irish people. We should take more pride in the fact that what is probably one of the greatest structural crises we have ever had is being dealt with by the people. Apart from two sets of demonstration – one by the old age pensioners and another by public sector unions - Irish democracy proceeded with steadiness and a lack of hysteria and posturing. We are dealing with the crisis. CAB is about its work, as are the Government and the people.

We were not stampeded into posturing, which is what yesterday was about. Had that small minority of infantile disorders got into Leinster House, what did they propose they would do? Would they have beat up the catering staff or the ushers? What was it but, as Senator Hanafin acutely observed, posturing? This is not the business of serious socialists. Serious socialists have work to do. They must organise, campaign, write pamphlets, agitate, join the Labour Party or a radical party or whatever. They should not posture and mimic the activities of the French and the Greeks. It was going through the motions. If one wants to know the model of a serious socialist, one should study the life of Gordon Brown. He was a serious socialist.

Hmmm…

The next day we were treated to this analysis… oh… and extra added ‘dialectic’ thrown in for good measure…

Senator Eoghan Harris: I ask the Leader to consider having a debate on moving on. By this I mean that there is an ideological division in the country which has become clear to those of us who work in newspapers. On the one hand, one has those who want to continue fomenting anger and looking back, while at the same time trying to moving forward. They give one a dialectic in that they want to move back and forward at the same time. Some of us who work in the media have detected a very serious structural shift among the public. The RTE media whinge nexus is misreading public opinion and newspaper sales will prove who is right about this.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party should take stock of these shifts in public mood. I woke up this morning to hear an after-image of euroscepticism around Fine Gael, the party I would have thought owns the European project. I do not like after-images like that and do not care what were the details of the debate – the trees so-called – because the wood is what matters. The after-image left behind in the public is that there is some kind of problem between Fine Gael and Europe.

A few weeks ago the after image left behind in the public was that there was some problem between the Fine Gael Party shadow spokesman on justice and the Garda Representative Association when the former was ambivalent about an issue. We then had an affray in the Dáil yesterday and two voices were heard in this House. Senator Donohoe has been very solid in saying: “We stand by law and order and do not stand over this GRA gurrier stuff”. Other Fine Gael voices have also been solid, including Senator Joe O’Reilly yesterday who stated his party did not stand over the affray. I wish Fine Gael would start speaking with one voice. If it is to take over the Government of this country, it should not dig holes for itself, as it is doing by being ambivalent on euroscepticism, anarchy in the Garda and this, that and the other. Let it get a grip and start behaving like a Government party.

So hows this for a rebuttal…

Senator Jerry Buttimer: I add my voice to the calls for a debate on the tribunals. I find it nauseating to hear Members opposite questioning the tribunals. If I am wrong, the Leader can correct me, but is it not the Government which sets the fees and the Minister for Finance on behalf of the Government who agrees to them? Therefore, the Government has the power to set the fees, to increase and decrease them. I accept that it has decreased them. However, it is nauseating to listen to Members opposite, given that in some cases members of their party caused the tribunals to be further delayed. It is important for the tribunal concerned to answer the question of how it can claim for six days of the week, 52 weeks of the year. All of us on this side of the House agree that the tribunals have gone on for far too long, something which needs to be changed.

Senator Harris spoke about public opinion and the need for people to stop reflecting on what happened in the past. As someone who refers to history repeatedly in the House, he should know that we should learn from mistakes made in order that we can avoid repeating them in the future. As somebody who knocks on doors four nights a week, I can tell the Senator that the people are angry. Many of them would love to see punditry being removed from our newspapers and television screens because it serves no purpose in our society.

Ouch!

So I’ll leave it to you to determine who has had a good, bad or indifferent war this time around.

Finally, many of us may have forgotten the following. It’s a small thing, but sort of interesting.

Senator Terry Leyden: Today and yesterday have been very historic days. I ask the Leader of the House to send our best wishes to the new British Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Nick Clegg, MP, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, with which the Fianna Fáil Party is aligned in the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. I happen to be vice president of the party in the Council of Europe.

An Cathaoirleach: The Senator’s position is not relevant to the Order of Business.

Senator Rónán Mullen: However, the Senator does not agree with everything they say.

Senator Terry Leyden: I wanted to put it on the record that we form a group. The Fine Gael Party—–

An Cathaoirleach: The Senator should ask questions of the Leader.

Senator Terry Leyden: It is appropriate that after 65 years there is a coalition Government in Britain. I thank Mr. Gordon Brown, MP, for his work for Ireland and I wish the new British Government well. Our Leader should convey that to the new British Government. I just wanted to point that we have a little link through the Fianna Fáil Party with the new Government in Britain.

Senator Fidelma Healy Eames: That will doom it.

Senator Maurice Cummins: The weakest link.

An Cathaoirleach: No interruptions, please.