Crown must get off fence over future of Seanad

It would be helpful if Senator John Crown were to state unequivocally where he stands on the Seanad issue.

He has asserted that he will not be campaigning for the ‘ retention of the Seanad’. However, one logically cannot infer from this that he will be actively campaigning to have the Seanad removed. It seems his response to any question relating to his true position on the Seanad — which he hasdescribed on RTE television as ‘an affront to democracy’ — appears to be predicated on whatever expedient or circumstance arises, when the electorate vote on the Seanad’s future, rather than a principled one.

Would he not agree that he should be far less concerned about reactionary senators, pirouetting like ascendancy Tories imitative of the old College Green parliament, and far more anxious, and irate that the Seanad continues to exist — an institution defined by the unutterable arrogance of those who pose an affront to that democracy which Senator Crown would have us believe he values so dearly? Time to get off the fence.