Seanad & Court of Appeal Referendums

[corcaighcailin]

Two weeks to go people (voting day: Friday 4th October)

Do you know how you are going to vote (presuming you have a vote)?
Have you received the information booklet?
Did it make any sense?
Do you even care?

With regard to the abolition of the Seanad, I would be opposed to the proposal to abolish but I would support major reform.

Arguments for:
-The Seanad costs a lot (not 20 million, that figure can't be confirmed*).
-You'd have to go back to 1964, the last time the Seanad rejected a Bill and really, how effective have they been since?
-According to international best practice, Ireland is in the minority regarding two Houses of the Oireachtas.

Opposition to the abolition of Seanad Eireann:
-If the referendum is carried, do we really want give the Dail the power to legislate without any checks or balances being carried out? Isn't all that power concentrated in one institution a red light for democracy?
-This year alone, there has been hundreds of amendments to legislation in the Seanad. Most of the work carried out in the Seanad is unreported so the majority of us are unaware of what exactly they do. (This wasn't always the case as Seanad reports used to be reported in the broadsheets but all that has changed now).



* http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/abolishing-seanad-would-not-save-20m-fg-td-says-1.1525779

 

[Corcaigh32]

Agreed

 

[BlueMagic]

Yes to Abolish Seanad

No to the new Court of Appeal

 

[Corcaigh32]

No to both.

 

[greengrass]

Def. yes to abolish that elitist forum that has not stopped one piece of legislation for 49 years.

 

[INFERNO]

I shall treat it with the apathy it deserves.

bet it'll be close to, if not, the lowest turnout ever!

Democratic icing on the cake!

 

[Frank Le Bluff]

Time to get those wankers in the seanad fucked out

 

[BlueMagic]

No to both.

All jokes aside, what is your rationale to keep the elitist, non-changing, non-elected Upper House open...





Let's waste some more tax payer's money on this nonsense eh?

 

[BlueMagic]

Def. yes to abolish that elitist forum that has not stopped one piece of legislation for 49 years.

+1. My sentiments exactly.

The time for Seanad to be relevant came around September 2008 when they could have told McAleese bring back guarantee to people for referendum. People would then have voted for guarantee most likely and at least people wouldn't have that huge excuse then...

 

[frankeechops]

I have major problems with peoples views on why the Seanad should be abolishef.

Firstly, that €20 million will be swallowed up, and probably exceeded by Dàil commitees with expanded powers, so we can knock that one on the head. People seem to forget that we've already had a refferendum on expanding the powers of Dàll comitees that was roundly defeated, not withstanding the major justified complaints with the recently announced banking enquiry to be carried out by the Finance comitee.

No one is disagreeing that in its present form its electorate is elitist, that is precisely why its remit needs to be radically reformed. I've outlined my views on this in the first thread on this subject, so I won't go into it again.

The Seanad has put various ammendments to legislation over the years, this thing about it not stopping Legislation is moot in my view, as this is the first time I can remember that the Government has not had an overall majority in both Houses.