The Seanad was abolished before – now let’s shut it once and for all

PEOPLE have become so disillusioned with politics in this country that there are calls for scrapping the Seanad and a significant reduction in the number of Dáil deputies. It would not be the first time for the Seanad to be abolished.

When Éamon de Valera was elected president of the executive council of the Irish Free State in 1932, he ran into opposition in the Seanad, which frustrated his plans to implement Fianna Fáil’s promised reforms. At the time Cumann na nGaedheal controlled the Seanad.

The government appointed half of the 60 senators, and the other half were elected by the Oireachtas. Senators had a nine-year term, with one-third of them up for election or reappointment every three years. Thus it was going to take some years for Fianna Fáil to redress the imbalance of the 1920s