Seanad abolition a stunt, but it’s also a good idea

It’s guff of Fine Gael to claim there will be a financial saving if the Seanad is abolished, or that it will be reformed if it is not.

But is it too much to ask the Irish people to separate two issues? We want to give Enda Kenny the good kicking he deserves for failing to live up to the mandate of reform he was given, and we know the idea to abolish the Seanad was a stunt because he was in danger of being ousted as Fine Gael leader, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea.

We can give Fine Gael and Labour a good kicking next year, at the local and European elections.

I’d ask those people who want to retain the Seanad two questions: 1, in the history of the Seanad, from among its hundreds and hundreds of senators, name ten who were not a Dáil has-been or wannabe (Mary Robinson and David Norris both tried to become TDs, so they don’t count)? 2. Name one time when the Seanad prevented the Dáil making one of its many bad laws?

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London

England