Abolish the Senate ........No

First let me declare my self interest. I intend to be a candidate in the next Senate elections so I had a particular interest in Enda Kenny’s intention to abolish the Senate. I think he is wrong for a number of reasons.

First of all it is a simple matter of democracy. Sure the Senate needs reforming but abolishing the Senate would mean that we would have one less institution for the expression of independent views and opinions. What we need is more democracy not less so if Enda Kenny wants to abolish the Senate does he have any proposals for another forum that would provide a platform for views that are independent of political parties?

Secondly it is clear that the Senate needs reform but this is no more true of the Senate than the Dáil. It is clear that both our major political institutions have failed to keep pace with the demands of a 21st century globalised and digital society and economy. The political and public administration systems of the state are essentially the same as when the state was founded in 1922. Both the Senate and the Dáil need to become more open, more efficient in the way they do their business and more reflective of the demographics of Irish society. If the institutions of the Oireachtas need reforming then we should start with the Dáil as that is the more important one.

Thirdly when I first heard Enda Kenny speak about this he suggested that one of the important reasons to abolish the Senate was the cost. It would save approximately €150 million. That is the price he puts on democracy. If he simply wants to save money then one of the things he could look at is the whole system of local government. There are county councils whose populations would not fill a stand in Croke Park and they have a whole sub-structure of VEC’s, library committees etc. Now I am all for more local democracy but why do some counties with tiny populations have a county council and suburbs of our major cities that would dwarf them do not. The county structure is a hang over from Elizabethan administration. Let’s keep the boundaries for cultural and historical reasons but let’s amalgamate all of the smaller ones into more administratively efficient and cost effective units with fewer councillors and at the same time hand over to them more power so that they do not have to be referring back to Dublin and the Department of the Environment all the time. How about that for a piece of political and cost saving reform Mr. Kenny?

Fourthly if Enda Kenny wanted to do something positive for the political institutions of the State one of the things he could do is amalgamate his party with Fianna Fáil and finally put an end to Civil War politics. After all there is no particular ideological difference between them. Their difference goes back to the sides they took in the Civil War and in some cases to personality and territorial disputes during the War of Independence. This split has given rise to a political system where party loyalty and political advantage is frequently put before the interests of the country as whole. Individuals of talent and ability have been marginalised by both major parties when they are in government because they were not party people. The converse is also true mediocre people have been promoted because they were loyal to the party. At least the Senate has a few truly independent voices with talent and ability that got there on their own merits without being party hacks.

Without reform the Senate has sat longer than the Dáil, had more real debate and defeated government Bills. All this suggests that it is more of a real political forum than the Dáil. Let’s build on this rather than go along with a headline grabbing suggestion that implies political reform without grasping some of the very stinging nettles that would bring real political reform