From top: Fine Gael’s Director of Elections for the 2013 Seanad Abolition Referendum Richard Bruton  (right) with Regina Doherty and Simon Harris on September 9, 2013; Dan Boyle

The constitutional referendum held in 2013 on the government’s proposal to abolish The Seanad was lost through indifference.

Certainly it wasn’t defeated by any overwhelming affection in which our second chamber of parliament was held. Less than 40% of voters participated in the referendum dividing on a 52% No 48% Yes vote (sound familiar?).

I took an active role in that campaign. As a former member of the Seanad I could see it had value, even if it has never operated to anything like its potential throughout its existence.

To be honest I much preferred my time as a Senator to that I had spent as a TD. I found the debates more engaging. I found the scrutiny of legislation to be more thorough. The pity is that too few Senators allow the Seanad to be the powerful parliamentary tool it can be.

The Seanad has been allowed to develop into a filter for the wider political system. A crèche for those not yet fully immersed in the ‘real’ World politics of the Dáil, a place of sanctuary for those left homeless by the Dáil electorate, or a rest home for those left battered by a system depriving them of being where they want to be.

I would say that about a fifth of the membership of The Seanad works to make the House a living, active parliamentary chamber it should be. For most of the others it is somewhere where prestige does not require responsibility.

This disconnect is something I sadly see being maintained through many of the candidates being presented to us, a privileged and select electorate, for the election to the next Seanad.

Since 1992 I have participated in every Seanad election (with the exception of 2007, my fallow period between being a TD and a Senator). Disappointingly, for the most part, there has been no great improvement in the calibre of many coming into the Seanad. That said after the 2016 election there have been a few flickers of light that this is beginning to change.

Due to changes we have seen in the composition of the Dáil itself, and before that as a result of the local elections in 2019, we are now likely see in the next Seanad a more diverse chamber than has ever existed to date.

However a more qualified membership of the Seanad will mean nothing unless it is accompanied by long avoided reform to The Seanad itself. The template for that change already exists. It is easily implementable. The coming government, however it is composed, should make it its priority.

A reformed Seanad should be mostly elected by the general public. The Taoiseach’s nominees (of which I was once one) should be maintained but on a smaller scale.

I would suggest no more than five nominees, whose purpose should not be to contrive a Seanad majority for the government of the day, but to help ensure that those elements of society not represented in the political system, begin to be so recognised.

We should place the election of the Seanad on a different electoral cycle to that of The Dáil, impeding the ability of those who seek to jump from one house with the expectation of being able to jump back to the other at the soonest possible opportunity.

When this happens, if this happens, I might be tempted to go back.

Dan Boyle is a former Green Party TD and Senator and serves as a Green Party councillor on Cork City Council. His column appears here every Thursday. Follow Dan on Twitter: @sendboyle

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