Taoiseach Enda Kenny's failure to engage in public debate on the abolition of the Seanad led to many voters switching sides and voting to retain the upper house, Fine Gael TD for Waterford John Deasy claimed yesterday.
According to Mr Deasy, he met many people a week before the referendum who were “ardent abolitionists” only to discover on Friday night that they had switched from voting to scrap the Seanad to instead supporting its retention.
“I’m not surprised at the result - there was a shift in the last four or five days and it was down I think very definitely to the non-engagement by the Taoiseach and I think the arguments about the €20 million cost were well and truly debunked,” he said.
“I do think people who had presented themselves to me as ardent abolitionists a week ago, when I met them on Friday evening, they told me they had voted No and they did so because they thought the Taoiseach should have engaged in a debate that he personally had started.”
Asked if he thought the defeat of the referendum would call Mr Kenny’s leadership of Fine Gael into question, Mr Deasy said that he didn’t know the answer to that question but he did believe Mr Kenny’s failure to engage in the debate was “a huge mistake”.
"I think I can understand why he wouldn't want to engage in a presidential-style debate with Micheal Martin but I think he should have engaged with somebody like Bryan Dobson and at the very least explained his reason in the last week why he initiated this referendum in the first place.
“I think people looked at that as being a mistake and I think they attribute the switching of their vote to that and I met quite a few people who said that was the reason they went from a Yes to a No vote,” said Mr Deasy.
Speaking in his hometown of Dungarvan, Mr Deasy said only time would tell whether Mr Kenny had been damaged politically by the referendum result given it was very much his personal project but it did suggest that Mr Kenny would have to engage in debate on future issues.
“I think very serious issues will arise from this, issues that affect the country greatly and he (Mr Kenny) will be expected to debate those issues and he can’t really refuse to engage with the public when those kinds of issues turn up in the future,” he said.
Asked if he believed that the Seanad would now be reformed on foot of the defeat of the referendum, Mr Deasy said he believed everyone, including sitting Senators, recognised the need for reform but he was somewhat sceptical about how or when that might be achieved.
“The Seanad needs to be reformed but what form that takes is anybody’s guess - let’s be honest about it, we’ve been waiting for two and a half years for some sort of reasonable reform of the Dail and that hasn’t happened so I’m not holding my breath and I don’t think anybody else is either.”
