Yes. All this is evidence to my mind that it would be very much better to leave things as they are. The Vice-President told us about a Speaker or ex-Speaker who was not re-elected to be Speaker. I gather that is the case that he had in mind. He told us that that gentleman, who represented nobody, should concentrate on another constituency while he sat in the Dáil. I can imagine the reception that the member for that other constituency would give this gentleman representing nobody concentrating upon the people whom he was elected to represent. I disapprove of this Bill altogether. It is very hard to amend it, and logically it is not possible to amend it. You cannot amend a thing logically which is utterly illogical in itself. It only shows us how unwise it is to make constitutional amendments without some really grave and all-important reason. We have a written Constitution, and this is one of the illustrations of the advantages of a written Constitution. We find it very difficult, if we amend it, to know what the results of that amendment are likely to be. Senator O'Farrell's amendment is an attempt to improve what I think is a very illogical situation. I object, and will continue to object, to a member of a representative assembly representing nobody. That, to my mind, finishes with this Bill altogether. The idea of the presiding officer of a legislative assembly representing nobody is, to my mind, a parody on constitutional principles. I have an amendment down which we are to discuss, and which removes at all events the personal element, because I should be very sorry to be suspected of taking any personal view in this matter. I would be very sorry indeed to say anything unkind or impolite about the distinguished gentleman who presides over the destinies of the Dáil.
What I propose is that he should be re-elected for his former constituency. That would make his position in the next Parliament perfectly safe. Senator O'Farrell has a similar purpose in view in the amendment which follows, and to that extent I accept it and welcome it.
The main underlying principle of Senator O'Farrell's amendment and of mine is the same. It removes the utterly impossible situation of an unelected member being a member of an elective and representative assembly I think that when one considers the matter deeply one becomes more impressed of the desirability of the legislature being elected. We have been talking all our lives about democratic institutions, constitutions and legislalive assemblies. This Bill is the first real attempt to go behind the principles that we have always professed. We are going to have in the new Dáil a Speaker who represents nobody. I hold that you cannot confine this election to the Speaker. You must treat your Deputy-Speaker in the Dáil in exactly the same way. Then, if you do so much in the Dáil, you must come to the Seanad and you must re-elect your Chairman and your Vice-Chairman of the Seanad automatically. Once you start infringing on the principle of representation you do not know where you may be landed. It might very well happen that when the system had been in operation for a few years, with the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the Dáil and the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman of the Seanad elected automatically, that the President might consider that he was entitled to be re-elected automatically, and I do not see how, on logical grounds, you could prevent it. I think it would be very much better to leave this matter alone and not interfere, as this Bill does, with established principles in this country. I certainly support the Senator in all his amendments. They do not quite treat the matter as I would like it to be treated, but they carry out to a certain extent the views that I maintain.