SEANAD:SETBACKS SUFFERED by Fianna Fáil in the council elections should provide an incentive for Seanad reform, Joe O'Toole (Ind) suggested.

Referring to the fact that more than two-thirds of the House membership is elected by councillors, he said the main Government party was “down two quotas” when comparison was made with the previous local elections.

Perhaps Fianna Fáil would now get more enthused about the proposal for Seanad reform, which might proof them somewhat against the loss of their councillors. They might consider changes, even for their own self-preservation.

Eugene Regan (FG) said that Standard Poor’s had downgraded the sovereign debt rating of this country and the electorate had downgraded the rating of the Government. Those in government had not got the power to get us out of our difficulties.

The election results represented a fundamental change, because the reality was that there was no longer a substantial, secure core vote for Fianna Fáil, just as there had never been a secure core vote for Fine Gael.

“I think now we can have real politics in this country, where people decide whether the government is competent to do the business of governing, or not. Voters out there have realised that even though they saw Fianna Fáil as their own party, their party was not able to deliver the goods and serve their interests and serve the general interest of the population.”

Eoghan Harris (Ind) said a lot of rubbish had been talked about a seismic shift in Irish politics. In his view it would be very bad if such a shift had taken place.

The reason why Irish democracy was the most stable in Europe, having at various times survived fascism and IRA armed struggles, was that there were two centre parties which offered a change of tone and temper and which could move to the left or the right according to changes in the political context. We did not need a left-right divide.

To those who predicted that Fianna Fáil would disappear from the landscape, he would say that would be a tragedy, just as it would be a tragedy if the same were to happen to Fine Gael.

Pearse Doherty (SF) said a clear signal had been given by the electorate that the current Coalition no longer had the moral authority to govern.

Ivor Callely (FF) said it was wrong to claim that moral authority to govern had been withdrawn. “I put my hand up and say, ‘Yes, this Government and this side of the House have made serious mistakes.’ But, equally, people I have spoken to have indicated to me that they are satisfied that they have a cohesive government in place with a level of stability.”