Recently, Ireland’s main opposition leader Enda Kenny has proposed that, upon election to the role of Taoiseach, he would abolish the Seanad, thus saving millions each year.

A Decadent Democracy

For those of you who are a bit slow, Seanad means Senate in Irish. It is essentially a constitutional safeguard, elected by colleges, the governments and vocational panels, to stop a tyrant government ripping up the constitution. The 5 vocational panels make up 43 of the 60 Senators to be appointed.6 for colleges and 11 by the Taoiseach.

This sounds all fine and dandy. A great set-up that allows a government voice whilst keeping the constitution intact. The truth of the matter is much different.

- Most Senators have party affiliations, when they should be independent. The government has 28/60 senators, nearly the majority, plus whatever independents are allying themselves with the government.

- Most are unknown to the general public, with exceptions being Ivana Bacik (Progressive Atheist  -WIN!), Shane Ross and David Norris.

- Senators should be, quoted form the government website “A typical working day for a senator involves researching and preparing speeches for debates on social, economic and financial issues, drafting amendments to Bills and examining proposals for new legislation, contributing to debates on Bills and other important matters.”

A source in the Seanad, Eoghan Harris, says the following occurs “While I’m talking, they are texting, they are speaking, they are waiting to heckle, they are waiting to get in”. Much ado about nothing in there, eh?

So, the Seanad isn’t perfect, but it’s a worthwhile investment, right? Well, not currently. The Senators are costing the state millions annually. Each senator has a €70,000 salary, which amounts to €4.2 million each year. Dump on top of that an 87,000 allowances wage and it clocks up to €9,420,000. It also costs €3,698,000 to televise the Seanad. We’ve clocked up €13,118,000 just to pay the Senators and Televise the Seanad to the public. I don’t like to get into itty-gritty expenses like creches services or a car trips.

What is the cost of Democracy?

So, is 13,188,000, the cost of democracy? I say no. The simple fact you have problems such as waiting queues in hospitals, and are spending millions on token positions to scratch a back of someone is ridiculous. And that is what the role of a senator has degraded to, scratching the back of someone who didn’t get elected in, or launching the career of someone in an elusive political family. Now, I don’t propose completley abolishing it. I am however in favour of of cutting the Seanad’s number of senators. I’ve been in the Seanad. It’s a small room, and hasn’t the parliamentary chamber layout.

So, what reforms I hear you ask? Halve the number of Senators. We don’t need 60 as it currently stands to protect the constitution. 30 is enough. And as for protecting the constitution, the President does that. As for electing the senators, I’m unsure. I think they should all be independent to start with. An election only guarantees the “Tyranny of the Majority”. Ideally, the Opposition should gain the majority stake of electing 20/30 members of the Seanad for the balance of power. The government would elect the other 10.

However, abolishing it is not the way forward. Should we then not get rid of any institution that costs money to run a democracy. And when we do that, it’s called a dictatorship. The fact is we need a middle-of-the-road compromise and in general, more competent politicians. While the former can be made, the latter takes a well-educated populace, which is becoming unlikely as the government slashes education expenses.