Seanad important part of our history and can play important role in our future

Posted on October 19, 2009 at 12:35 AM

I believe the announcement by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny that he will abolish the Seanad was driven by a desire to be popular with those who hold our parliament in low esteem, including those media commentators that do so. But in the current negative political climate, members of the Oireachtas, if they care about democracy in this country, need to come out fighting for our democratic institutions. If, as has been reported, the Fine Gael leader failed to consult with his colleagues in the Seanad about the future of the Seanad, what would that indicate about the Fine Gael Leader’s attitude to democracy?  A vote to put the matter to a referendum would first be put to the Seanad. Would the Seanad vote for its own abolition and how would each individual Fine Gael Senator vote?  Would Enda Kenny expect his Senators to have such a poor view of their role that they would go so far as to vote to end that role? 

Enda Kenny’s proposed political reform amounts to nothing more than a cut, only this time the scissors is to be taken to democracy.  To put Enda Kenny’s proposal for abolition of the Seanad into context, he stated that it would involve the holding of a constitutional referendum within a year of him taking office. In the meantime, the 24^th Seanad would have been elected. Allowing for the possibility that Governments can run their full terms, the Seanad could remain in place for at least another 8 years prior to abolition. What sense is there in making decisions now that are primarily about saving money in 8 years time? 

My own experience as a Senator was that there are many good Senators and that the Seanad contributes important changes to legislation and political ideas.  I do understand why people in the current economic climate might ask if the Seanad is worth having. But the Seanad has existed since the foundation of our state. It has provided a parliamentary platform to key people in our history including W.B. Yeats, Douglas Hyde, Judge Catherine McGuinness, Maurice Manning, Thomas Johnson and Mary Robinson. If we are to consider the future of the Seanad we need to look at it in its historical context and consider whether it has made a difference.   I believe that it has and I have selected below some moments in the Seanad that stand out for me. My list is not by any means exhaustive.  I am sure the Seanad can help shape our future just as it helped shape our past. It can do even better if it is reformed, but that would take a vision for the Seanad that Enda Kenny apparently does not have. 

1. On the 18 December 1922 the First Seanad passed the first act of an Irish Parliament for 123 years.  When the act had passed Senator Grattan Esmonde asked his fellow Senators to pause and consider what they had just done: “We set a milestone to-day in our Nation's progress; we have done what generation after generation of Irishmen have lived and died to do, and we may thank God we have lived to see this day”. It was no easy task establishing a democracy after the Civil War and this was acknowledged by the outgoing Cathaoirleach of the Seanad on the 19 May 1936 when he said “On the 11th December, nearly 14 years ago, we met here in bleak December. We met in darkness. We emerge in light, conscious that we did our duty, and conscious that, in our every act, we tried to build and strengthen this infant State”.  
2. Senator Gordon Wilson’s maiden speech to the Seanad was made on the 23 March 1993. Three people had died the previous night in the Northern Ireland conflict and Senator Wilson told the Seanad of how in recent days he had contacted the IRA to request to speak with them and that the IRA had conceded to his request.  He said that those who accused him of naiveté in contacting the IRA were wrong and went on to address the IRA directly to say “Finally, I would like to say something to the IRA. In a very short space of time we have observed Europe changing quite dramatically. With this change significant questions are being posed about matters such as sovereignty and self-determination. Surely then, the social and political energies needed to transcend the past, to enable the Irish people — all of them — to participate effectively in the building of a new future that will meet the current challenge, will never be mobilised adequately until we find the means of ceasefire. Even the most fervent supporters of the IRA must have begun to question a campaign which seems, from the outside, more and more to have become a campaign for continued political stagnation”. Gordon Wilson’s contribution to the peace process was both recognised and enhanced by his nomination to the Seanad. His speaking about his personal tragedy of losing his daughter in the Enniskillen Bombing, together with his willingness to forgive the bombers significantly changed the perception we had of the Unionist community. It was the ability to see that there were two sides to the troubles that was instrumental in the decision by the majority of the Irish people in 1999 to replace articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution.  
3. The idea that the Seanad’s purpose is to be a check on the Dáil was vindicated relatively recently on the issue of freedom of the press. On the 11 July 2001 it was the Seanad that prevented the passing of a law that no opinion polls be taken or published in the seven-day period prior to any election or referendum.  The Dail had been asleep at the wheel when it passed this flawed legislation. It took Senators from the Government and opposition benches of the Seanad to stop it. 
4. The Seanad voted in 1936 against Eamon De Valera’s bill to abolish the Seanad.  This was no act of mere self interest. It made no sense for Senators to vote to abolish the Seanad. As Labour Senator Tom Johnson argued on the 16 January 1936 to pass the bill “would be a self-condemnatory action”.   He went on to describe the main case for having a second chamber, which is as relevant today, as follows:“I think that the case made for a Second Chamber, so far as it is a valid one, is this— that it ensures that a reasonable time is allowed between the introduction of legislation and its enactment to enable Deputies and the public to become aware of the purposes of that legislation; that it requires that there should be critical public examination and discussion not only of the main purposes of a legislative proposal but of the secondary consequences, those minor matters that do not come into the public view and are not the subject of acute controversy and do not receive close examination in the Dáil”.  
5. Labour Senator Evelyn Owens brought her experience as a trade unionist to her Seanad speeches on workers rights. She consistently highlighted the plight of women in the workforce and helped to persuade the Government to bring in anti-discrimination legislation. She was elected the first woman Leas Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann on the 20 June 1973.
6. Following the successful case taken by Senator David Norris to the European Court of Human Rights the Irish Government decided to decriminalise homosexuality and announced its decision to the Seanad on the 12 December 1990.

Joanna Tuffy T.D. was a member of the Seanad from 2002 to 2007 and is a Labour member of the All Party Group on Seanad Reform.

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