Enda could electrify the nation if the Seanad was just for starters

I WAS watching the news the other night and saw someone I’d never seen on television before.

Tom Boland was his name, and he was introduced as the chief executive officer of the Higher Education Authority (HEA). And what I saw convinced me that Enda Kenny is absolutely right about the reform measures he has announced – but also that he hasn’t gone nearly far enough.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure Tom Boland is a fine public servant, committed to the work and remit of the HEA. But he was on the news to defend a series of what are essentially political decisions. He was there to take the flak for government. And that has to stop. The central point of political reform has to be to strip away the buffers that governments are increasingly hiding behind. Abolishing the Seanad, in that sense, is only a first step on the road to real political reform.