Howlin defends Seanad abolition referendum

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, said the referendum to scrap the Seanad is "absolutely not" a waste of political time.

He claimed there's no point in creating a role for the Seanad, as proposed by some opponents of abolition, if it is not already needed in our political system.

"We have to look at the Oireachtas and say: do we need two houses? Is the Senate doing something that demonstrably needs to be done?

"And if it's not, you know - people are talking about 'creating a function for it' - we don't need to create a function. If it's not manifest that it's doing a job that needs to be done, then we don't need it," he said.

Howlin's comments come as opinion polls show a continuing tightening of the views with a month to go until polling day.