We need more oversight, not less

It is highly regrettable that in advance of a crucial budget, the Government is cynically trying to persuade people that Seanad abolition will somehow cure all our economic ills.

What this country really needs is a proper debate on the type of policies necessary to generate jobs and stimulate investment. Voters need to be clear that abolishing Seanad Éireann will compound Ireland’s economic difficulties, not resolve them.

Today — through no fault of their own — many Irish people are experiencing great hardships.

Why did this happen? It’s very simple: The systems, the organisations that exist to serve and to protect our citizens failed, the political parties, the Oireachtas, the Civil Service, social partnership. In every family, in every home and business the cost of this failure is being felt.

So how do we respond?

Put simply, firstly, we need more oversight — over politicians, civil servants and policies. Secondly, we need new voices, the people that the parties and Dáil have shut out. That is what a reformed Seanad can do.

The bottom line is that shutting half our parliament is not the correct response to economic collapse. Shutting half our parliament only shuts down oversight and shuts out new voices. That’s no way to run a country.

The forthcoming referendum will take place against the backdrop of mass unemployment, widespread emigration, and countless thousands of people in negative equity.

In this harsh climate, it does not make sense to make Government even more powerful and less accountable. A sensible response to this distressing state of affairs is to reject the Government’s plans to do away with the people’s right to a second democratic chamber.

A reformed Seanad is a positive response to the fiscal crisis and loss of sovereignty. It will help to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.

For these reasons, I am urging people to vote ‘No’ on Oct 4.

Senator Feargal Quinn

Seanad Éireann

Dublin 2