Enda Kenny calls for the Seanad to be abolished

[Rocky]

Very true. The amount of criticism Kenny got on this was unreal, even from Fine Gaelers. However he was right and as the debate has progressed that has become very clear.

I think the whole event has showed how conservative and scared of new ideas that the Irish media and people who are involved in politics are. To the credit of Kenny that doesn't concern him though and he is one of the first politicians in Ireland who is prepared to be radical and can think outside the box, which is brilliant.

[ParliamentBend]

It is fascinating seeing what everyone was saying when called called for this. Calling it populist and that if that is what FG stand for they wouldn't vote for it. By now most parties are either calling for it or actively thinking about it.

[anfieldabff]

Very true. The amount of criticism Kenny got on this was unreal, even from Fine Gaelers. However he was right and as the debate has progressed that has become very clear.

I think the whole event has showed how conservative and scared of new ideas that the Irish media and people who are involved in politics are. To the credit of Kenny that doesn't concern him though and he is one of the first politicians in Ireland who is prepared to be radical and can think outside the box, which is brilliant.

While I think you are right in much of what you say, the problem with the Irish media, is that they have been bought off by FF and so any sensible suggestion from the other side is immediately rubbished by the Indo journalists in particular, but usually followed by so called independent commentators on RTE.
The requirement for RTE to be unbiased as long been left to one side, and hence the greatly inflated salaries of so called stars. The are only tollerated by the government because they constantly back them up.

[LgCastell]

Hope Kenny is only starting political reform here, he must move on expenses, pensions, the number of TDs and much more, go for it Enda, you have started finish it.

FG have published a doc on reinventing government (http://www.finegael.org/upload/NewPolitics.pdf) and it is quite good there info on the seanad itself are very interesting its conflicting nature and historical reasoning are worth reading

it also goes on to discuss giving more power to the dail and to be fair FG are the best place to know how inept the dail is as they've been in opposition for quite some time ...

on a side point i was reading the new pol document and in fairness the FG policies and proposals relate well across the board as New Politics New ERA , Reinventing Government, all relate well to each other

i think they need to remind the public that reform doesnt start and stop with the abolition of the seanad and FG have proposals to do it

[Tomas Mor]

Given that FFers andf Labour are now planning to abolish the senate, can credit be given (if grudgingly) to the man who proposed it two years ago- Enda Kenny. As with benchmarking he led the way,in having this useless talking shop scrapped.
Duckie Martin came out today and now wants it abolished. Just a week ago he said he wanted it "reformed".