Saving the Senate - Rebirth not closure is the answer

THE idea of offering the Senate as a sacrificial lamb to atone for the failures of our political system has gained unprecedented momentum as a proposal and as a convenient diversion too.

In our tradition of grand-gesture politics, the suggestion that the institution be axed — for the second time — has assumed an immediacy, a fashionable edge.

Éamon de Valera shut it down in 1937, when democracy was challenged right across Europe, as senators had the temerity to oppose legislation his Government wanted to enact. He re-established it as much feebler, less challenging entity under the 1937 Constitution.