First things first, Seanad Éireann hardly represents a Pandora’s Box of Irish political ingenuity. It is not, hasn’t been nor shall it ever be in all likelihood, a panacea for the civic, social and political ills of this State. But it shouldn’t be abolished, and come Friday, October 4th, I will be voting ‘No’ to the proposed Thirty-Second Amendment of Bunreacht na hÉireann. Why? Because this whole Enda Kenny-inspired endeavour is nothing more than a stunt, a proposal dreamt up and articulated by the then opposition leader at his party’s 2009 presidential dinner, as he fought to retain his leadership. Bear in mind that only three months previously at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties Mr Kenny had declared: “I see a new role for the Seanad entirely. The system of voting has got to be changed. Every graduate should be entitled to vote for the Seanad.
