Mealltach writes:
The Labour Party poster campaign has the obvious parallel with “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer”, the slogan for the abolition of the German upper house and indeed all other parties all those many years ago.
Pics: Labour.ie, Senator David Norris
Independent Senators Fiach MacConghail [top] and Marie Louise O’Donnell [above] have two of the worst [attendance] records [in the Seanad] but they were only recently appointed by the Taoiseach with great fanfare – on his behalf.
Others were more sceptical. And no wonder. O’Donnell seemed to have been appointed for no other apparent reason than that she praised Enda Kenny’s leadership style in the media, notably on a crucial RTE Prime Time Special. And MacConghail was appointed for his arts experience but more specifically because he was chairman of We the Citizens civic group which was founded to bring new energy and accountability to Irish political life! Imagine.
The hope was that MacConghail would bring this focus into the Seanad, although many saw the appointment as a clever emasculation of this new group by sending its chairman into the discredited second chamber and thus impugning its ‘independence’. So what does it say about We the Citizens, that its chairman should then not bother showing up – for votes, and debate? How do they feel about it?
One In Four Senators Miss Each Vote (Independent.ie)
(Photocall Ireland)
The Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin.
From left: Joan Burton, Dublin Lord Mayor Oisin Quinn, Eamon Gilmore, Cathaoirleach Carrie Smyth and Minister Alex White calling for a YES vote in the forthcoming referenda.
Stoked.
(LabourParty/Photocall Ireland)
RTE has invited @EndaKennyTD to take part in Seanad debate with @MichealMartinTD on Seanad on October 1
— Sarah McInerney (@SarahAMcInerney) September 20, 2013
Oh, It’s ON.
Possibly.
Previously: Not Taking Debate
File pic: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland
This is cynical campaign by Government to deny public the right to vote in future #seanad #seanref pic.twitter.com/PRkOxue9qQ
— Derek Mooney (@dsmooney) September 19, 2013
Meanwhile…
From left: Simon Harris, Regina O’Doherty and Richard Bruton this morning highlighting the “20 million in “savings” from abolishing the senate.
Except it will be less than 10 million.
Someone’s going to have to stay behind today…
Yes well. You’ve only got yourself to blame.
Previously: Doh!
(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)
Number-stumbling Fine Gael deputy director of elections Regina Doherty and Eoghan Murphy TD launching the party’s ‘controversial‘ Facebook ad campaign for the upcoming referendum on the abolition of the Seanad (October 4) in government buildings yesterday.
Previously: Doh!
Fine Gael’s Deputy Director of Elections Regina Doherty, top, and FG’s anti Seanad campaign, above.
@SenThomasByrne @yourrights_ie @damien_english and yet they did – http://t.co/BKU5ORagxJ
— Regina Doherty (@ReginaDo) September 17, 2013
Oh.
Discussion with Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (January 2012)
Previously: That Sinking Phelan
Sam Boal/ Photocall Ireland
(Elaine Byrne with Michael McDowell last year)
…the claim that the Seanad is unreformable is simply not true. It has been reformed, and effectively so, in the past when claims of corruption were levelled against it.
The Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) Act, 1947 outlines the procedures for elections to the Seanad which have remained unchanged since they were introduced to the 1948 Seanad elections.
However, the other thing that this case from the 1940s illustrates is that only the executive can successfully carry through reform and, at present, there is no will within the executive to undertake such a programme. Ultimately, it is only the executive which retains the levers of power to pioneer how the Seanad is constituted.
Elaine Byrne writing in The History Hub’s Seanad Special
Past Reforms and Present Policy: examining the Seanad Electoral Act, 1947 (HistoryHub.ie)
Previously: “We Have To Look At The Situation Where Gerry Adams Could Be The Next Tánaiste”
Pic: Elaine Byrne.ie
Thanks Sarah
(Mairead McGuinness MEP, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and John Paul Phelan TD)
Fancy graphics on the Fine Gael website contradict the Carlow/Kilkenny TD.
Not laughing at you John Paul, laughing with you.
Abolishing Seanad would not save €20m, FG TD says (Mark Hennessy, Irish Times)
(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)
From left: Ruth Coppinger, Paul Murphy MEP and Mick Barry at the launch of the Socialist Party’s campaign to abolish the Seanad at Leinster House this morning.
“It is the purpose of the Seanad from its inception – a more limited franchise is designed to ensure a Seanad that is more conservative than the Dail. None of the proposals for a reformed Seanad change that reality.
Hypocrisy abounds on all sides on this issue. On the No side, Fianna Fail’s bleating about a reformed Seanad is just as hypocritical as the government’s talk about democratic change. The collection of right-wing politicians and journalists that makes up the so-called ‘civil society’ group, Democracy Matters, is just as guilty. If Fianna Fail was serious about reform of the Seanad, it could have driven it during its dominance of politics over the past decades.”
Scrap The Seanad (Paul Murphy, The Socialist Party)
(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)
