No Seanad reform this Dáil term!

An Ciarraioch

It appears the Seanad referendum has proven a busted flush, as the Taoiseach today admitted no reform would occur in this Dáil term. So, the defeated Coalition candidates will simply move to the upper house, the 1979 and 2013 referendum results will be ignored, and the Quinn-Zappone reform bill, which could be implemented by both houses, will be left to gather dust!

http://www.thejournal.ie/what-happened-to-seanad-reform-2387863-Oct2015/

BoJack Horseman

Once FF return to power next spring, I hope that Senate reform is a key policy plank.....

Just like it was, the past two decades.

The Randy Riverbeast

Dont know much about 1979 but how is the 2013 result being ignored? Wasnt it a question of to abolish the seanad or not?

An Ciarraioch

The Randy Riverbeast wrote: »

Dont know much about 1979 but how is the 2013 result being ignored? Wasnt it a question of to abolish the seanad or not?

In fairness, no-one campaigning for retention was arguing for the status quo, for instance two Senators produced a bill proposing how the Seanad panels would be opened up to the public, along with the university seats. Similarly, the Michael McDowell group wanted the Seanad retained as an oversight, but only as a reformed upper house. No referendum was required, so changes could have passed through both houses at any point in the last two years.

B17G

An Ciarraioch wrote: »

It appears the Seanad referendum has proven a busted flush, as the Taoiseach today admitted no reform would occur in this Dáil term. So, the defeated Coalition candidates will simply move to the upper house, the 1979 and 2013 referendum results will be ignored, and the Quinn-Zappone reform bill, which could be implemented by both houses, will be left to gather dust!

http://www.thejournal.ie/what-happened-to-seanad-reform-2387863-Oct2015/

Whatever about the Quinn-Zappone bill, even the government's own bill to extend the current university franchise to other 3rd level institutions hasn't made great progress either. Looks like it will die with all other efforts at reform.

http://www.environ.ie/en/LocalGovernment/Voting/News/MainBody,35475,en.htm

L1011

An Ciarraioch wrote: »

In fairness, no-one campaigning for retention was arguing for the status quo, for instance two Senators produced a bill proposing how the Seanad panels would be opened up to the public, along with the university seats. Similarly, the Michael McDowell group wanted the Seanad retained as an oversight, but only as a reformed upper house. No referendum was required, so changes could have passed through both houses at any point in the last two years.

The reality of it is that arguing to vote for retention based on putative reform was basically conning people in to believing that they were voting for reform.

The people voted to retain it. That's all we can interpret off the results.