They promise reform, hoping it won’t happen

“As a democracy approaching its centenary, we should not be seduced by the piffling savings projected by bureaucratic bean-counters.” So writes Cllr Joe Conway (Letters, Aug 27) as an argument to retain the Seanad.

Of course he would; he is on the top tier of our wonderful democracy (the irrelevant council). I refer all those intending to vote to read the incisive analysis of Gerard Howlin (Opinion, Aug 28) on the irrelevance our elected elite.

He said: “The elected Oireachtas, and its committees, remains a powerless, under-resourced and largely unquestioning rubber stamp for government. The interrogation of budgetary decisions, and the policy assumptions underpinning them, by Oireachtas committees, is derisory and ineffective.