I am a democrat and I believe that the Irish People are entitled to an Oireachtas that is democratic, efficient and cost-effective.
The Constitution provides that our Oireachtas is composed of a President and two houses, Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. The Constitution permits the elected Senators to be chosen by the people on the basis of one person, one vote.
But Dail Eireann, by statute, has deprived the people of a vote and given it instead to a small electorate of politicians. A Bill to give everyone a vote is now before both Houses.
This barrier to the full exercise of the people’s sovereignty was imposed by legislation and accordingly the only entity preventing the Irish People from voting in Seanad elections is the Government.
The Fine Gael/ Labour Coalition could enact legislation in the morning extending the franchise to everyone entitled to vote in Dáil elections as well as those forced to emigrate and to those living in Northern Ireland.
Surely that is the way to deal with an institution that has been rendered undemocratic by the Dail through legislation, by repealing and replacing it, and not by abolishing the institution itself?
Yet the Government has refused point blank to institute reform before considering the abolition of the Seanad. Why?
Fine Gael tells us through its election posters “Save €20million – Fewer Politicians – Abolish the Seanad.” This cynical slogan is blatantly wrong since the claim that abolition would save €20 million was rubbished by Mr Kieran Coughlan, the official responsible for the operation of the Houses of the Oireachtas in his evidence to an Oireachtas Committee on 12 January 2012.
The real cost of the Seanad according to Mr Coughlan was €9.2 million gross. This comes down to €6.5m after taxes, or about €1.60 per person per annum!
The “Fewer Politicians” slogan presumes that our democratic institutions, such as the Senate, exist simply to give politicians employment rather than vice versa. This was neatly expressed by the Taoiseach in his speech announcing the referendum when he said “There is something fundamentally wrong in politicians asking others to change, to make sacrifices – and then refusing to do so themselves.”
The Government also tells us that the Seanad should go because it adds no value to our democracy. This argument would be much stronger than the ‘Save €20million’ or ‘Fewer Politicians’ if it was true, but unfortunately for Seanad Abolitionists it’s not.
Since 2011, the Seanad has made 529 amendments to legislation, amendments that were not made in the Dáil.
The importance of these amendments was shown by various Government ministers on July 18th in answer to a series of parliamentary questions tabled by the Fine Gael Director of Elections, Regina Doherty TD, tabled, no doubt, to cast doubt on the number of amendments made.
To take two examples, the Minister for Finance told Ms Doherty that 174 amendments were made to the Credit Union Act 2012 and that “many non-government suggestions were taken on board.” He also told her that a Sinn Fein amendment proposing an amendment to the Local Property Tax Act 2012 reducing the value of property for local property tax purposes for adaptions made for disabled persons formed the basis for an a provision in the Local Property Tax Amendment Act 2013.
Abolitionists argue that the Seanad should go because other equivalent countries have unicameral systems. No EU country is as controlled by the Government whip as Ireland. Yet the Scandinavian examples cited have much stronger systems of local government where most of the issues affecting day to day life such as health, education, social welfare and transport are dealt with a local rather than national level.
Ireland is not the only smaller EU country with a bi-cameral system – Slovenia has two chambers.
Abolition of the Seanad means:
- One House can in future remove judges and the President
- Nobody who is not a TD can be a Minister
- There is no constitutional bar to guillotining any legislation through without debate
- There will be no room in our parliament for voices such as TK Whitaker, Mary Robinson, WB Yeats, Gordon Wilson, and Seamus Mallon
- One House can use the options and discretions power under Article 29 to over-ride the Constitution to introduce EU, including criminal laws, and to abandon our tax veto in Europe
- The Dail Whip system will be used to hunt down and silence independent and minority voices, to expel them from parties and then to de-select them as candidates, as we have seen recently
The Quinn/Zappone Seanad Bill, which needs absolutely no constitutional change, will:
- give the vote to everyone in the State as well as emigrants and those in the North.
- also reduce the cost the Seanad dramatically, cutting Senators salaries in half
- improve and refine the Seanad’s role as a revising and scrutinising chamber
- give it roles in the scrutiny of EU directives and appointments to state boards as well as a role in parliamentary inquiries.
Vote No to send a message to the Government that the Irish People want real reform. Vote No to show that we want to “open our democracy not close it” even further.
But most importantly of all, vote No to show that our political institutions exist for the People and not for the Politicians.