The debate you haven’t been able to see on TV (yet!)

THERE were heated words last week when Taoiseach Enda Kenny rejected a challenge from Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin to debate the Seanad Referendum with him on TV.

However, to make up for the disappointment of not yet witnessing a debate on your television screens, your Number 1 local newspaper today prints the opposing views of both politicians for the benefit of its readers.

Read their arguments below as they try to sway you – the voter – ahead of October 4 when the referendum will be held to decide the Seanad’s future.

?¢ Demand real reform and vote NO in Seanad referendum
By Fianna Fail Leader Micheál Martin

IN two weeks, Dublin voters will be asked to make the largest ever change to our Constitution. We are not being given any option on political reform – the Government wants voters to abolish the Seanad outright and further centralise political power at the Cabinet table.

The only way to tell the Government that the choice they are offering in this referendum is not good enough is to vote NO. The only way to demand real political reform is to vote NO. Only a NO vote will send out a message that we need to radically change our political system; we need to bring politics closer to the people; and we need to improve democracy, not undermine it.

People of all ages right across Dublin are justifiably fed up with politics and with politicians. They want to see some real changes to our political system.

Scrapping the Seanad is not the answer. In fact, it will actually hand even more power over to the political elite. If this referendum passes, it will be a major step back for democracy. By abolishing the Seanad, Fine Gael and Labour would be cementing absolute Ministerial control over the political system and pushing politics further away from the people.

Everyone is agreed that the Seanad as it stands does not work as it should. Fianna Fáil has put forward alternative proposals to radically reform the Seanad so that it can keep a close eye on legislation on behalf of the people and ensure that the Government of the day does not have free reign to do as its pleases.

This would be the people’s Seanad, with much broader representation in order to give a voice to sections of Irish society that would otherwise go unrepresented. That’s exactly what an Upper House should do.

Fine Gael and Labour were elected on a promise of reform. But they have betrayed voters and have broken this promise spectacularly over the past two years. In reality this Government, the Taoiseach and his Cabinet are even less accountable than their predecessors.

Over the past two years, the time available to question the Taoiseach has been slashed by 40 per cent. The introduction of Friday Dáil sittings has been a complete sham with TDs unable to discuss meaningful issues, no questions to the Government allowed and no votes allowed.

Fine Gael has cut the number of committees since coming to power, restricted debate, blocked sensible legislation from the opposition and forced through its own policies without proper scrutiny.

If this referendum is passed it will mark the death of any chance of real political reform. An already too powerful Government will cement its absolute control of our parliament and nothing significant will have changed from the system which was in place before the crisis.

I don’t believe that people in Dublin want to give an already too powerful Government even more power. I am asking Dublin voters to get out and have their say on October 4. Let’s demand the real reform that this country desperately needs and vote No.
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?¢ I’m asking you to vote YES

By An Taoiseach Enda Kenny

ON Friday, October 4, you will be asked a straight question. Do you want to abolish the Seanad? The answer is Yes or No.

I’m asking you to vote Yes. And here’s why.

In our democracy, though the Government governs, it is the people themselves who rule. That means you. You choose the men and women who you believe will best represent you, your values and interests in Dáil Eireann. One voter, one vote. All equal. In a democracy, that is how it should be.

Now think of this. When it comes to the current Seanad, just 1 per cent of the population elected it. Unless you’re one of that privileged one per cent, you, as a voter, have no say in who is elected to this

‘democratic institution’. We must bring Ireland into line with every other European country of our size, all of which have just one chamber of parliament.

That’s one of the clear reasons I believe the Seanad must go. It is an old-fashioned, elitist assembly of

‘entitled insiders’, elected by the privileged few. What place can it have – or should it have – in a modern, Irish democracy?

I believe none. That is why I’m asking you to vote Yes to abolish the Seanad on October 4.

On coming to office, I committed to making our Government more democratic, more efficient, more transparent and more accountable to you, the voter. I promised four real reforms so that Government and politics could serve you better.

We would have fewer politicians.

A smaller Dail that would do more and sit longer.

Stronger committees with real power to hold people to account.

Three of those reforms have begun. Number four, the abolition of the Seanad, is in your hands. You will decide. I’m hoping you will decide to take positive action. Because it is time to wipe out the elitism and entitled privilege that has dogged Irish politics. It is time to haul our political system into the 21st century.

I’m asking you to vote to abolish the Seanad not just because we need to close a quaint curiosity that has no place in 21st century Ireland. I’m asking you to vote Yes because I believe the abolition itself would signify Ireland’s desire and will to create a new and better kind of politics and public life. Both of which would reflect the standards and values we try to keep in our personal lives – hardworking, no-nonsense, ambitious, fair, decent, dignified, compassionate, confident and common sense.

That disconnection between life as lived and politics as practiced has led to the chaos and pain of recent years. For the sake of democracy, for our future success and prosperity as a people, I am determined to close that gap.

To do that politicians must show the people of Ireland that they too are facing up to our new economic demands. That they too are willing to do more with less. And less means closing down an institution that belongs to the last century and hasn’t used its limited powers to delay legislation since 1964.

We are a small country. We are a dignified, brilliant people, returning to prosperity and success. Above all, we are democrats. Therefore, one House is enough on the say-so of all our electorate. Not two, at the pleasure of the one per cent.

I’m asking you on Friday October 4, to please vote Yes.