27/01/2015 Session
Irish President Michael D. Higgins has made a strong plea for parliaments to “reassert their relevance” – in part by returning ethics to the centre of economic debate.
In an uplifting speech to the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the Irish head of state said current challenges gave parliaments a unique chance to craft morally-grounded responses in “a conversation about our humanity”.
He asked how it was that ratings agencies, for example, not bound by any democratic requirement, had gained such influence over the lives and prospects of citizens?
President Higgins called for a “cultural and ethical refounding” of the democratic system similar to that carried out by the architects of the Council of Europe.
He also richly praised the work and ideals of the Council, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights and its Court, and expressed “disquiet” at endeavours to undermine their legitimacy. To those who saw a tension between parliamentary democracy and human rights, he said, “let us respond unequivocally that parliaments flourish in an atmosphere where rights are vindicated”.
He ended by describing the members of the Council of Europe and its parliamentarians as “citizens of the ‘Republic of Conscience’” described by Irish Nobel Prize poet Seamus Heaney.