AS THE newly elected Seanad met for the first time yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny reminded members of its uncertain future by reaffirming the Government’s intention to hold a referendum next year on the abolition of the Upper House.
As Samuel Johnson once remarked: “The prospect of hanging concentrates the mind wonderfully”. Incoming senators must feel rather like death row inmates who have received a temporary reprieve.
But there is time before any vote on the Seanad’s future for its 60 members to demonstrate to the public that the second chamber is indeed worth saving.
Mr Kenny, in naming his Taoiseach’s 11 nominees, largely resisted the temptation to use his constitutional prerogative for narrow party political advantage. He has chosen wisely and from a broad cross-section of society – the arts, sport and charity sector. In particular, the appointment of Dr Martin McAleese, husband of the President, is a well-deserved recognition of his quiet work over many years in advancing the process of reconciliation with members of the loyalist community in Northern Ireland.
The challenge for the new Seanad is how best to persuade the public that reform rather than abolition is the better option. A particular difficulty is the long record of the many failed attempts to alter the Upper House. In more than 80 years, there have been no fewer than 12 reports on aspects of Seanad reform. But during that time too little has changed for the better. In the last report – in 2004 – the Seanad, in reviewing its operation, readily accepted that many members of the public saw the Upper House as “weak, ineffective and of questionable value”. In the last government, environment minister, John Gormley tried without success to secure cross-party agreement on the reforms outlined in the Seanad review. Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil are all in favour now of the referendum proposing abolition, so its survival seems a remote prospect.
There has been a decline over time in the public standing and political authority of the second chamber. The failure of successive governments over more than 30 years to acknowledge the will of the people on university representation has not helped matters. They failed to pass legislation to give effect to the result of a 1979 referendum to give all third-level graduates a vote in Seanad elections, not just those from Trinity College and the National University of Ireland.
Eamon de Valera scrapped the Seanad in 1936 before restoring it a year later, with some significant changes, after the introduction of a new Constitution. The people will be asked to vote to abolish the Seanad in 2012.
The Seanad has been a refuge for party loyalists and the trendy elites of the universities. Its low standing is a symptom of the failure of the political system. The father of the House, David Norris, made a very convincing case for the reform and retention of the Seanad yesterday. This is a worthwhile debate. While value for money is important, the Seanad should not be evaluated merely on a crude cost-benefit analysis.