Seanad recalled after successful motion by O'Toole

THE SEANAD is being recalled next week for a very rare sitting between the general election and before a new Seanad is elected.

The initiative came from outgoing Senator Joe O’Toole, who invoked an obscure standing order to secure the sitting. The House will sit from 2.30pm next Wednesday.

Under the standing order, the House can be recalled for a special sitting and debate if 30 Senators are willing to sign a motion. Mr O’Toole learned yesterday that the application had been accepted.

Polling for the Seanad election will begin on April 26th.

It is almost unheard of for the Seanad to sit in the period after the Dáil is dissolved and before Seanad elections take place. As it happened, there was another sitting last week, to complete unfinished legislation, but the last time the standing order involving the signatures of 30 Senators was invoked was in 1980, when the Seanad was recalled for a special debate in the summer recess, at a time of great crisis in the North.

Thirty Senators usually comprise half of the 60 members of the House. However, the number in the Seanad has fallen to 47, following the election of 14 senators to the Dáil. Nine are from Fine Gael and four are from Labour, as well as Independent Shane Ross.

Former Fianna Fáil TD Darragh O’Brien was appointed by Taoiseach Brian Cowen as a temporary Senator to fill the vacancy left by one of Mr Cowen’s appointees, Ciarán Cannon, after he was elected to the Dáil.

Mr O’Toole, who is not seeking re-election, said he took the action after he wrote to the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and other party leaders last week asking them to reconvene the Seanad. Mr O’Toole received no reply to the letters.

He said he wanted the Seanad to be recalled to discuss the programme for government. He also wanted to ensure that the Bill banning involuntary electric shock treatment for psychiatric patients completed its passage.

Mr O’Toole said the idea behind the recall was to act as a reminder of why Seanad Éireann was there. “It gives an extra view and an informed view. I think it very important that the programme for government be discussed. We are specifically not discussing its proposals in relation to the Seanad.”

He said that he might invoke the standing order again to discuss the future of Seanad Éireann itself. Mr O’Toole has said that one of the principal reasons he is standing down is to allow him campaign for the House’s retention and to argue for the benefits it brings to the democratic life.

“We already have emaciated local government, proposals to abolish the Seanad and reduce the number of Dáil deputies by 40 and make it sit five days a week to make sure that TDs do not go near their constituencies. I would argue that every one of those steps is a regression in democracy.”