Sinn Féin to campaign for Seanad abolition despite previous calls for reform

Sinn Fein have announced it will support the campaign to abolish the Seanad.

The party says the Upper House is elitist and out of touch, and that it would prefer to scrap the chamber altogether than reform it.

The policy comes despite the party's TDs and Senators voting against the referendum plans in the Oireachtas.

"It was a fundamental mistake for the government not to refer the issue of the Seanad to the constitutional convention where other issues of constitutional importance are being discussed," said Deputy Pearse Doherty in a statement.

"We are now faced with a choice between keeping the Seanad as it currently stands or abolition and in that scenario Sinn Féin believes that it should be abolished."

Pro-reform group Youth Matters criticised the party's decision. Policy Officer Joe Byrne said "It is remarkable that Sinn Féin, of all parties, would forget the role that the Senate has played in allowing Northern Irish citizens to sit in the Oireachtas and keep debate representative of the nation as a whole.

"The Universities Panel of the Seanad is the only 32-county electorate and should be expanded to all graduates of all traditions, not wiped away."