http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQNHRQgUgEQ&feature=youtu.be

(IT ONLY ENCOURAGES THEM/YouTube)

FOLLOWING THE VOTE to retain the Seanad last week, it was inevitable that the matter would dominate the early proceedings in today’s Order of Business.

With reform high on the agenda, the suggestion that senators work for nothing was addressed early on by Independent senator David Norris.

Norris said that any move to remove pay for senators would lead to the upper house becoming populated only by “millionaires and aristocrats”.

There was a suggestion last night on Vincent Browne that said we should work for free. No bloody hope will I work for nothing.

Norris said that he works hard and wouldn’t be doing so for free.

I work a 14-hour day, I ain’t doing it for nothing pal.

Norris also took aim at the government over the €20 million savings figure, accusing them “deliberate lies”, saying that the debate over the figure highlighted the need for a permanent electoral commission.

He added that some politicians had put “party before country”.

Norris paid tribute to the groups who had campaigned against abolition.

“We were a small group who took on the machine and won.”

Read: Jigsaws, ‘The Beatles’ and €20m: Fine Gaelers rue ‘dreadful’ Seanad abolition campaign

Read: ‘We don’t really simplify things that are straightforward’: Ballot papers cause confusion