Government defends Seanad reform working group with no Senators

The establishment by the Taoiseach of a Seanad reform working group has been defended in the Upper House against Opposition criticism that no members of the House are among the group.

Seanad leader Maurice Cummins (FG) said the group "is not a blue-sky committee". He added: "Rather than replicating and duplicating work that has already been done, it will mostly be doing work based on the recommendations of previous reports."

Fianna Fáil Seanad leader Darragh O’Brien led criticism of the proposed committee and said “the Taoiseach has not been in touch with anyone”.

He asked if anyone was consulted before the working group was established. “We all want to work towards reform of the Seanad, but also reform of the Oireachtas.

“The Taoiseach is missing the point. Although there are some excellent people in the working group, why is it that no existing member of the Seanad was brought in?”

Independent and recently elected Senator Gerard CraughwelI said he was “rather shocked at the weekend to find out that an eminent group had been put together to come up with proposals for the reform of the Seanad”.

Mr Craughwell said “democracy is a fragile thing, and during the life of this Government the democracy of the country has suffered quite severely by having decisions made by a small group of people on the economic management council”.

He asked: “What right has anyone to bypass this House, set up a review group but not consult the members of this House? This is totally unacceptable in my view.”

But Mr Cummins said it was the “prerogative of the Taoiseach to appoint Members to a working group if he so wishes”.

He said Enda Kenny had informed him he intended setting up such a group and was not aware of the membership of it.

The Seanad leader pointed out that all interested parties, including all the nominating bodies, were invited to give written presentations to the previous committee on reform.