Defending the Seanad

Posted on October 26, 2009 at 11:34 PM

I might seem a bit obsessed with the Seanad, writing again about it this week, when it seems the media have moved on from Enda Kenny’s announcement that he would abolish it. Unfortunately the dominant voices were those that were cynical about the Seanad and its value.  It’s not that I am hankering to get back to the Seanad, I am glad I was elected to the Dail. But I worry for politics that the Seanad is being attacked in the way that it is, disappointed that Fine Gael would stoop to this and that so few would stand up for our Seanad.

I ran for the Dail because I thought I could win a seat for Labour in the Dail. I ran for the Seanad for the same reason. Labour were short about 30 votes in the Panel I ran for and there was no guarantee that I would win a seat. In fact many Labour people thought I would not win a seat.  But I felt at the time that if I made a real effort that I could do it.  The campaign to be elected to one of the panels in a Seanad Election is very different to the Dail election. You have a very identifiable electorate, a very set task, and it is all about skill at one to one communication.  In a Dail election it is about both the broad sweep and the one to one.  For the Seanad campaign you really need to be able to figure out whether a particular person is likely to vote for you or not and what might persuade that person to vote for you. Every vote and preference you win is precious. You can’t leave anything to chance, even when it comes to councillors from your own party.  You can lose Seanad elections by fractions of votes.

Some Senators ran in many elections before they managed to be elected.  Some candidates try it once and leave it at that. It is a very physically demanding campaign.  You have to travel the length and breadth of the country for about six weeks. If you are serious about it you don’t stop for the six weeks. During my campaign I often got up at 5 or 6 in the morning to return to my bed at 2 or 3 o clock at night.  Some nights I stayed overnight where I stopped and travelled on somewhere else the next day. You had to drive up country lanes stopping for directions, if you could find someone to ask directions.  Sometimes in the wee small hours I would find myself at a cross roads in a strange place with no sign posts to guide me to my destination. Sometimes my father drove me.  Often I drove myself.  Sometimes I got lost. I met some very interesting people and I learned an awful lot from my campaign.  It was hard work but I was so glad to have had the experience.  I picked up the extra votes needed and was elected. 

I felt honoured to be a Senator and I felt this way the whole five years I was a Senator. I was in the same chamber that Douglas Hyde, Mary Robinson, Gordon Wilson, Tom Johnson, Conor Cruise O’Brien and W. B. Yeats served.  Having spent five years in the Seanad and two in the Dail, without any question I had more opportunity to contribute to legislation when I was in the Seanad than in the Dail.  I did feel frustrated at the lack of attention the Seanad got and that there was a limit to what the Seanad could achieve compared to the Dail. It has its faults and so has the Dail.  But that being said, if the purpose of the Seanad is to ensure legislation gets more leisurely consideration, than the Seanad is working. 

The main reason I believe the Seanad should be reformed is not to do with its work but more to do with its lack of engagement with the public and the media. I believe if the franchise was broader there would be more interest in what the Seanad does.  That is why when I was there I proposed that there should be a right for the public to petition the Seanad.  My motion received cross party support and Mary O’Rourke, who was the Leader of the Seanad, had the standing orders amended to provide for the right to petition the Seanad and a petitions committee.  It was to be modelled on the petitions system in the Scottish Parliament where members of the public can send a petition to the parliament to have a law changed or to have a debate called.  Laws have been changed by the Scottish Parliament on foot of a petition by members of the public.  I thought such a system would enable engagement by Seanad with the public.  Unfortunately the new Seanad has not established the petitions committee.  In the present climate maybe it never will. This is a shame. Senators need to stand up for the Seanad and take their own initiatives about enhancing its role. Irrespective of which party or we come from or none, T.D.s and Senators need to take on cynicism about politics and to defend the role of our Dail and Seanad.  Our Seanad dates back to 1922 and the foundation of our state.  Politics and our Dail and Seanad needed defending then from those that condemned them and those same institutions need defending now.

The debate on the Seanad Petitions Committee can be accessed from the record of Seanad Debates: Seanad Éireann – Volume 184 – 4 October 2006 Petitions Committee: Motion.

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