Seanad Referendum

#Seanref and Northern nationalism’s missed opportunity.

| Readers 34

Today voters in the Irish Republic will head to the polls to decide whether to abolish their second chamber, the Seanad. This issue has dominated political debate in Dublin. The Fine Gael/Labour coalition, in alliance with Sinn Fein, has come out for abolishing Ireland’s second chamber. While the main opposition party, Fianna Fáil have come out against abolition. However, as this debate has been going on south of the border, people in Northern Ireland, particularly nationalists seem to have a …

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#SeanadRef: Unicameral reforms little more than a ‘fag packet visualisation’?

| Readers 56

So, back to the real world, sortta. Yesterday the Government launched its package of reforms to try to make a future unicameral Dail fit for purpose: Extending Dáil sitting week and providing additional time for legislative debate The Dáil will start earlier each day meeting at 12.30pm on Tuesday and 9.30am on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday sittings will take place every second week and be extended to include a 2 hour debate on a Private Member’s Bill and a 2 …

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#SeanadRef: The Seanad is a watchdog that only barks every fifty years…

| Readers 68

listen to ‘#SeanadRef Boo 1: The long failing road to reform ’ on Audioboo Short audioboo on the Seanad Abolition Referendum (in lieu of a longer piece tomorrow on the Fine Gael position)… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

#SeanadRef: Will SF’s pro abolition campaign ‘yield the high ground of reform to Fianna Fail’?

| Readers 64

So Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty led today’s launch of his party’s referendum campaign. His closing statement, has less to do with the ups and downs of whether or not to change the Constitution, keep or close the Irish upper house, than targeting old enemies: “Do you trust these parties? Over the last decades there has never been political reform of the Seanad. There’s nothing to convince me that any of these individuals are genuine and sincere about political reform in …

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#SeanadRef: No one is defending the present Seanad’s toothless old assenting insiderly grin…

| Readers 54

So the Seanad Abolition debate got underway earlier in the week on RTE’s Drivetime programme with a lively if nervous and unfocused sort of debate. There are several things to say about the odd circumstances of this latest turn in the Republic’s seemingly unending cycle of referendums. One is that the Enda Kenny’s great idea came before he used his Taoiseach’s nominations to appoint some tough and independent minded Senators who have had the effect of boosting both the quality …

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