JUNIOR MINISTER LUCINDA Creighton says she fully supports the government’s proposition to abolish the Seanad, but was slow to be drawn further on the matter this morning.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One, the Fine Gael TD told Pat Kenny that the people have two choices – to keep the second house or to scrap it. When asked what she would choose, the Minister of State for Europe, who is married to sitting senator Paul Bradford, said:
My choice is, I have two very important men in my life – one is my husband and the other is my Taoiseach. And I’m not going to try to cause a row with either of them.
“I have always said that there is a role [for the Seanad],” she said. “I’m fully supporting the referendum but I think it is fair to say that we have a Seanad which is two years into a five-year cycle. I don’t see why it shouldn’t participate in greater scrutiny of European legislation over the next three years and make itself relevant and useful.”
Despite acknowledging the need for reform of the entire political system, including the Dáil, the Dublin deputy said she is not calling for a parallel proposition for a Seanad makeover.
“We are looking at internally at ways to put greater checks and balances in place,” she continued.
Speaking on the same programme, People Before Profit Alliance TD Richard Boyd Barrett said he believes the Seanad “should be abolished in the sense of the current elite institution which isn’t really representative of society”.
He said a preferred system would include another tier of democracy acting as an oversight on the “dysfunctional” Dáil that would include some form of direct participatory citizens’ assembly.
Earlier, Creighton defended the Irish Presidency of the EU, describing it as cost effective.
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