Garda Síochána (Powers) Bill 2026: Committee Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-14 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel I want to be concise in what I say. I wholeheartedly agree with my colleague Senator McDowell. This is as much about how the decision was communicated as the decision itself. I have raised this issue time and again. I am looking at the letter here, dated 14 May. This is not the way to do business. It is not the Minister's fault, per se , but I will come to him in a second. I welcome him and his officials to the House. Parliamentary democracy is at the core of this and this sort of thing undermines confidence in parliamentary democracy. Without going into it at any great length, we have seen Bills on a whole range of things guillotined since this Government took office. That shows disrespect for the Upper House, the revising Chamber. That is a pity. The record shows the consistency with which the working affairs of our Chamber have been, shall we say, undermined, at best. That is not good enough. Senator McDowell has made a very clear case for reinstating this amendment as valid on the clár, our agenda today. I want to be pragmatic. The Leas-Chathaoirleach can use her powers under Standing Orders to perhaps suspend the House for a period of five or ten minutes to allow some consultation in the anteroom. We need a way forward; it is as simple as that. I am loath to have robust political debate in a private chamber outside this Chamber but we need to move on at some point. We need to acknowledge that this was not the right thing to do. We all know that the Government has a vast majority in the House. Regardless of any amendment coming on the clár for this Bill, if the Minister decides that he does not want to proceed, the Members vote accordingly. That is the party system. Whether the Minister likes an amendment or not, he is in control. I say that respectfully to the Minister. We do not need this internal, divisive approach. We do not need to curtail Opposition Members who want to engage. I ask that that be noted. There is a bigger issue here about how the permanent establishment seems to be drawn in or come under pressure in some way to curtail. I do not know if that is the case but I feel that it sometimes is the case. The manner in which this sort of thing is communicated has to change. We need to look again at that. I will put one question to the Minister. If he has an opportunity and thinks it is appropriate and right, I would like him to share with the House any knowledge he had about his officials approaching any of the staff here, whether the Clerk, the Clerk Assistant or any of the civil servants in the House, to in some way curtail or bring pressure to bear, overtly or covertly, in relation to this amendment? Quite frankly, I do not think that is good enough but maybe the Minister was not aware. Many things seem to happen in Ministers' offices that the Ministers do not seem to be aware of or, conveniently, are not informed about. At some point, the Minister might share with us whether he was aware of it and, if so, if he cautioned against it. Did he think it was the right thing to do or did he say, as the pragmatist he normally is, and I have a lot of respect for him, to leave it on the agenda to be debated and for Members to vote, accordingly, against it. I do not think the Minister is a man who interferes with or curtails debate. However, he is now wearing a different hat. He is now the Minister, the big boy up in the square. I say that respectfully because I like him, which is important, and I believe in him. I think he is a reforming Minister, so I am somewhat disappointed that this should happen on his watch. Again, maybe the Minister was not aware of it but, if he was, I want to know when he became aware of it, if he did anything to stop it, if he advised caution or if he said to proceed with it. Did the Minister come here today prepared, knowing that this was the proposal? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:57+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-14