Harris criticises 'squalid spectacle of the way we are'

SEANAD REPORT:EOGHAN HARRIS (Ind) said he would be voting for Fine Gael because he wished to vote for authority. He went on to deplore the "incontinent manner" in which that party and Labour had behaved in ensuring the Finance Bill was rushed through the Oireachtas.

For 70 years or more, Fianna Fáil had acted as a guardian against the armed doctrine of extremists in the IRA. If that party was about to disappear, it would not be a good thing for Irish politics. A certain duty devolved on the other great parties of authority. If the panic to have an election produced a meltdown that allowed “the armed doctrine” to dominate the opposition in the next Dáil, that would not be a good place for the Irish people to be.

Mr Harris, a Taoiseach’s nominee in the Seanad, said the Civil Partnership Act had been one of the few great achievements of this Seanad. It was a monument that would outlast all the rubbish and codology of the present time. The Finance Bill should have been put through properly for the sake of gay couples who had been hoping to benefit from provisions that had been intended for inclusion in the measure. What was the extreme rush for an election about?

“It’s like the January sales – a mob of people outside the door screaming to get in. Inside, the staff are making up their pension plans and going out the back door. Up in the boardroom they’re all divvying up the divvies. That’s the way we are. It’s a squalid, squalid spectacle.”

Speaking from the Government backbenches, Dan Boyle (Green) announced he had tendered his resignation as deputy leader of the Seanad. He understood there was agreement among the parties that legislation to back the necessary financial provisions of the Civil Partnership Act would be passed by April lst next.

Ronan Mullen (Ind) said all the main political parties had put selfish, short-term political objectives ahead of the needs and interests of the people. The rushing through of the Finance Bill showed politicians, when the chips were down, thought very little of the processes of the Oireachtas.

Criticising the Opposition’s “unseemly haste “ over the finance Bill, Jim Walsh (FF) said it did not matter to the people whether the election was held in late February or early March. “I am told it’s all about who gets to present the bowl of shamrock at the White House.”

Ivana Bacik (Lab) said that thanks to the no confidence motion Labour had tabled and the party discussions that had taken place last Monday, “we do now have certainty that the Government will not last beyond next Tuesday at the very latest”.

Rejecting criticism of his party’s demand for an early election, Maurice Cummins (FG) said a contender for the Fianna Fáil leadership, Micheál Martin, had stated the Finance Bill could be passed by next Friday at the latest.

Phil Prendergast (Lab) urged that the caretaker Minister for Health should put a stop to all processes, reconfiguration and transfer of HSE services until a new government was in place. She was making this call in view of the statement by then minister Mary Harney that the buck stopped with her in relation to HSE decisions.