No to Seanad, yes to real reform

According to the FG website: “Abolishing the Seanad will bring us in line with progressive European countries like Denmark, Sweden and Finland – all of which survive perfectly well with one house of parliament and far fewer politicians” .

These countries are indeed well run, progressive and do have unicameral systems. To say that Ireland would suddenly have a Nordic blond and beautiful parliamentary system by abolishing the Seanad is simply not true. All three countries have very different electoral and governmental systems to ours, the party list systems employed to elect MPs being the most obvious. It results in a focus on national, rather than local, issues for parliamentarians.

Take Sweden. It has 349 members in the national parliament and in addition a very well-developed system of local government, with proper tax raising and spending powers (30% average local income tax rate, and accounts for circa 75% of total budget expenditure). Many services are provided by regional or municipal government.