POLL: Should the Seanad be abolished?

[anewbeginning]

Yes, it serves no useful purpose. And after that the Dail should be abolished. And we directly elect a president who then nominates a cabinet for 4 years.

Two groups of people who have no real power in our state are the Senators and the Opposition, very expensive luxuries in my view.

[TommyO'Brien]

Yes, it serves no useful purpose. And after that the Dail should be abolished. And we directly elect a president who then nominates a cabinet for 4 years.

Two groups of people who have no real power in our state are the Senators and the Opposition, very expensive luxuries in my view.

So you want a government to be able to legislate by diktat???

BTW the Opposition does have power - soft power. It normally doesnt have the numbers to amend a bill but most bills are changed by government based on what is said in Dail debates. Ministers have been convinced to make changes by arguments made. A lot of suggestions made at second and committee stage by backbenchers and by the opposition result in the government proposing amendments at report stage. It is quite common. Few bills are not changed in some way.

[MrD011]

The Seanad should be abolished , its just a big waste of tax payers money , All the dodgy expenses and dodgy phone bills not to mention none of them have acutally been elected by the people their all just a bunch of elite university nutters with one goal , one eurotastic land where everyone will live in one eurotopia .

[Finbar10]

Opinion poll figures for various political reform options (including Seanad abolition) became available on Wednesday. These was part of more general research commissioned by the Oireachtas (performed by Red C and a number of political science academics: Jane Suiter, Theresa Reidy and Michael Marsh) into voter behaviour in the Oireachtas Inquiries Referendum. They presented their report to the Oireachtas Committee on Investigations, Oversight and Petitions on Wednesday. The table on page 27 of the report is quite interesting. It gives the following levels of support:


The number of TDs should be significantly reduced:
87%

The Oireachtas should be able to hold inquiries into matters of general
public importance:
75%

Same sex marriages should be allowed in the Constitution:
73%

Local government should be given power to raise and to manage their own finances:
62%

The Seanad should be abolished:
59%

The terms of the Presidency should be reduced from 7 years to 5:
54%

The offence of blasphemy should be removed from the Constitution:
53%

References to women's life within the home should be removed from the Constitution:
51%

The voting system PR-STV (Single Transferable Vote) electoral system should be replaced:
34%


On how the poll was conducted, 1005 people were polled. They were asked to rate their preferences on the above questions on a 1 to 7 scale (1 being strong disagreement up to 7 being strong agreement with 4 being neutral). Support for a measure is counted as being anyone who gave a score from 5 to 7, i.e. anything above neutral.

[Toman13]

The offence of blasphemy should be removed from the Constitution:
53%

References to women's life within the home should be removed from the Constitution:
51%

The voting system PR-STV (Single Transferable Vote) electoral system should be replaced:
34%

I'm surprised that there is such a small margin for the pro-reformers there. And WTF!?! Where did they say that they were going to reform the voting system?

[An Honest View]

Get rid of it as soon as possible, I will give a blunt honest opinion. Firstly if the Seanad votes against something put to them by the Dáil and the Seanad vote against it, the second time round the Dáil can make no changes to a new law and put it straight to the president. In that way the Seanad has absolutly no power!!!
Secondly the Seanad is always made up of members of the party in government no matter what party rules the country as when a taoiseach is elected he appoints most of the members of the Seanad, so obviously party members will not vote against their party. Also not every person in the country can vote which excludes some members of our society. Another thing is that most of the candidates who run for the Seanand are failed politicians who were at one time in the Dáil. My final point is that about how we look at the work conducted by these senators. Many don't even attend when the Seanad is held which is only on every second month! Now say if you didn't go to work for the day, would you be paid? No. Why do they get paid.
Finally the salary which is received by a senator is nearly as much as a TD and they only work once a month. By the way there massive wage is being paid is being paid by your taxes. Paying someone 90,000 euros is wrong if they only work 12 times a year especially in a recession! They talk about how we need to take wage cuts but they drive around with 5 mercedees in the driveway.
How can something so corrupt be a good thing?
The bad things outnumber the good.
No power, all government members, appointments by taoiseach, failure of hard work, exclusion of people in voting, consists of failed TD's, not forced to attend work but still receive wage, massive wage for little or no work(nearly the same as a TD). Now that is the only problems I have with the Seanad.

[An Honest View]

By the way I am 14 and live in Waterford where our county has been not represented well for the last few years in the Dáil

[Toman13]

By the way I am 14 and live in Waterford where our county has been not represented well for the last few years in the Dáil

At least you are guaranteed representation. In Leitrim, it's hit-or-miss, because they thought that it would be a good idea to split the least populated county in Ireland between it's more populous neighbors.

[john123]

I think as the senators are not elected by the people is the major problem its usually people who do not get in as a TD get a senate and a nice salary with that so I think if people could elect the members it would serve more of a purpose because if you don't perform the people can chuck you out.

[TommyO'Brien]

Looking at the stats in polls I think it likely that an attempt to abolish the Seanad will fail.