Reject attempt to abolish Seanad
No saving will accrue until late into 2016. Could this Government not think of anything more urgent to do with €20m this September? Have senior ministers anything better to do with their time? This is a tough autumn for thousands of families up and down the country. Anguished parents of children with disabilities are filled with fear for the future of their children.
Some children are coming to school hungry and too many of our brainiest and brightest are leaving the country looking for jobs. Our most frail and feeble can’t get an extra hour’s home help or access to carers. Thousands of us voted a Fianna Fáil-led government out of office, and did so emphatically, two and a half years ago, partly because they had become totally out of touch.
Abolition of the Seanad is a serious business, the most far-reaching interference in our democracy since the enactment of the 1937 Constitution. Any such proposal should be put to the people in the context of a clear coherent set of proposals to reform the whole system of Government — Dáil, Seanad, Local Government. The Government should be required to develop a set of discussion documents and engage the electorate in dynamic discussion.
This could be a very useful exercise in building a healthier civic culture. The Taoiseach says we need fewer politicians. We say we are concerned more with the calibre than the count. We need more politicians with the competency and the confidence to confront bankers, civil servants and powerful vested interests. We need politicians who can, not alone read the lines but what lies between the lines. We need women and men who are ambitious for the future of our country — more of them on the front benches. We need fewer speech writers, script writers, programme managers, press officers, personal assistants, etc, etc. That’s where money could be saved. We need a system whereby budgets are rigorously and openly discussed in the Dáil. We do not need more hearings and enquiries after taxpayer money has been squandered and the damage is done. We do not need to see intelligent, free-thinking women booted out or frozen out of Government, just because they hold convictions at variance with the whipped establishment.
The Taoiseach would do well to remember that he is now dealing with a sophisticated electorate of free thinkers. A black and white yes or no referendum question is an insult to their intelligence. They want to have their voices heard, their hopes and aspirations for the future of our country taken into account. They want to be engaged in a more thoughtful endeavour of integrated, in-depth reform of all our political institutions Dáil, Seanad, local government. And that is why we should all vote no to the proposal to abolish the Seanad at this point and send the question back to the Taoiseach to do his homework.
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