Irrelevant Seanad arguments

The arguments used in the Seanad referendum campaign seem to me to be increasingly irrelevant.

For example, the notion that Seanad Éireann should be a watchdog, or a bulwark against government excesses, is not reflected in the Constitution, which rather provides for the complementary roles of Dáil and Seanad in processing legislation.

Allowing for roseate-tinted nostalgia, my own experience of the Seanad from the late 1970s to the early 1990s is one of constructive co-operation with the government of the day, especially where Bills were initiated in the House on educational, cultural and social matters.

The informed and harmonious debate in the spring of 1991 on the Environmental Protection Agency Bill, introduced by Mary Harney, showed the Seanad at its best, entirely free of party rancour.

John A Murphy

Douglas Road

Cork