Madam, – At a time when the public and political parties are demanding accountability and transparency in the houses of the Oireachtas and when the very future of Seanad Eíreann is being openly discussed, one would imagine that the Seanad would have had a full attendance for its last and most important act of the 30th Dáil, debating and enacting the Finance Bill.
The Seanad is comprised of 60 representatives, yet the attendance and voting record of Senators for the Finance Bill shows that on Friday January 28th exactly 10 Senators did not participate in the crucial vote, a remarkable 17 per cent of the Seanad. On Saturday afternoon, for the Final Stages of the Bill, nine didn’t vote.
Throughout the debate and vote the Fianna Fáil-led Government side had a majority on all divisions tabled by Opposition parties, but almost lost a critical vote on one late recommendation made by Labour and supported by Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and the Green Party which would have seen the Dáil asked to vote on whether to force banks to publish the bonuses paid to bank staff since the bank guarantee was introduced in 2008. The vote was won by a margin of one, in favour of the Government, with the support of Senator Ronan Mullen of NUI Galway. What may be of interest to readers is that on Friday and Saturday Senator Mullen voted against the Finance Bill at all other stages. How is this possible? Where is the transparency and accountability?
What may also interest voters in the forthcoming election are not just the Fianna Fáil, Green Party and some Independents who supported the Bill, but those who didn’t vote to enact or reject what was one of the most important acts of legislation in the history of the State, one that will have untold consequences for the people of this country.
So now the Bill is introduced and we may never know what bonuses were paid to banking staff during the period 2008 to January 2011, thanks in part to some Opposition Senators not participating in the crucial vote.
Transparency and accountability indeed. – Yours, etc,