Abolition of Seanad - Government not open to reform

The Government yesterday announced plans for the 32nd amendment to the Constitution to abolish the Seanad. The amendment, which is expected to be put to the people later this year, will provide for 40 changes to the Constitution to remove all references to the upper house.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny stressed that he considers the Seanad an outmoded institution that is completely incompatible with a modern democratic Ireland. For a country our size, we have too many politicians, the proposals announced yesterday by the Government seeks to cut our parliamentary representation by about one-third. This should save around €20m annually.

In addition to the abolition of the Seanad, it is proposed to cut the size of the Dáil by eight teachtaí, and reform legislative procedures. Henceforth, each piece of legislation would be sent first to the relevant Dáil committee as heads for a bill.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore warmly supported the measures. Most countries do not have a second parliamentary chamber. Upper houses have been largely confined to countries that previously had an aristocracy such as the United Kingdom, or large federal countries such as the United States and Germany.

The Senate was first introduced in this country in the Constitution of 1922. It was designed to provide reassurance for the old landed gentry and the country’s Protestant minority.

As far back as 1928, the future Taoiseach Seán Lemass complained that the Senate was not designed to improve the machinery of government “but to give political power to a certain class that could not get that power if they had to go before the people at a free election and get the people to vote them into office”.

Following the change of governments in 1932, the Senate frustrated the constitutional reforms that the Fianna Fáil government sought to implement. The old Senate was eventually abolished in 1936. The new Seanad was then introduced under the current constitution endorsed by the electorate in 1937.

In the 75 years since, the Taoiseach noted, no meaningful reform of the Seanad has been introduced. From the outset it was elitist and essentially undemocratic in that most of the electorate did not have a vote. If its purpose was to provide oversight in curbing the excesses of government, it failed miserably, because it did nothing to challenge the excesses of the Celtic Tiger years.

Prior to the last general election, both Fine Gael and the Labour Party promised to abolish the Seanad, as part of their election manifestos. There are some who now argue that the Seanad should be reformed, but the Government has essentially concluded that the Seanad is not worth reforming. In the current financial plight in which the country finds itself, most people would probably agree.

The ultimate decision, however, will rest with the people in a referendum that the Taoiseach anticipates will be held in early October of this year.