INDEPENDENT SENATOR Joe O’Toole has confirmed he will not contest the next Seanad election and has described the Upper House as “a creature of the political parties”.
Mr O’Toole (63) has been a Senator since 1987. He is a former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) and former general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO).
“If the Seanad had been reformed, or they had set that in train, I would have run again, but it’s indefensible in its present form.
“It has become a creature of the political parties and it’s not doing what it was intended to do.”
Mr O’Toole said the Seanad had the potential to become a bridge between the “political class” in the Oireachtas and the public.
“When I make the case for the Seanad as a Senator, I’m seen as having a vested interest for mentioning it.
“I just feel I can speak with more clarity and less contradiction from outside. I can argue on the basis of what’s good for democracy,” he said.
Mr O’Toole was elected to the Seanad by graduates of the National University of Ireland (NUI). In 2007, the 60-seat Seanad was filled by 43 Senators elected by the vocational panels – 11 nominated by the then taoiseach Bertie Ahern and six elected by the graduates of NUI and the University of Dublin.
From Dingle, Co Kerry, Mr O’Toole was a principal teacher. Recently, he sat on the Seanad committee that investigated Senator Ivor Callely’s expenses.
Last year he warned that Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny was riding the crest of a populist wave to create a parliamentary system that would resemble those which had existed in Italy and Germany during the recessionary l930s.
Mr O’Toole urged Fine Gael Senators to pay even greater attention to their leader’s proposals on changes to the composition of the Dáil than to his controversial approach to the Seanad, which could see its demise.
Six years ago, Mr O’Toole worked on an all-party report on reform of the Seanad along with colleagues who were then senators, Mary O’Rourke (Fianna Fáil), Brian Hayes (Fine Gael) and John Dardis (Progressive Democrats).
The report has not been implemented by the Government.