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TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has pledged to hold all-party talks on the future of the Seanad as soon as he can in the wake of the referendum to abolish the upper house being defeated.
Speaking at Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil this afternoon Kenny proposed a meeting between the leaders of all parties both in the Dáil and Seanad to have a “meaningful discussion about what is best to do”.
He said he has a busy schedule but will engage with the leaders in both houses of the Oireachtas “as early as I can” to see “what is the best thing that we can do now in terms of making it [the Seanad] effective”.
Kenny was asked about reform by the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who pressed him to consider the Seanad Reform Bill that independent TD Shane Ross has placed on the Dáil order paper.
But the Taoiseach said there were a number of reform proposals that he wanted to consider including those put forward by Senators Feargal Quinn and Katherine Zappone as well as another proposal from Senator John Crown.
He suggested that the government could potentially legislate to allow all third-level graduates a vote in Seanad elections.
“I’ll initiate meaningful, comprehensive, thorough, fulsome discussions with everybody as soon as I can,” Kenny said, adding: “I’ve got a pretty busy schedule.”.
He added that any reform proposals would not be “as daft as some of the ones in the past” noting a proposal from former Fianna Fáil minister and senator Mary O’Rourke “to have 100 senators”.
Earlier Martin said that in rejecting the referendum last Friday voters “gave you, in your own words, one hell of a wallop”.
But Kenny sought to correct Martin, saying: “I said this was a wallop, not ‘one hell of a wallop’. Get your words right.”
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Bit late now, we won’t see level 1/2 till long after Christmas with the way things are
Impossible to even fathom at the moment with the way the things are, Even if we got back to level 2, cases will shoot up again. Fingers crossed for a good antiviral or something against the effects of covid for 2021
Is this woman for real? Level 1&2 have sailed a long time ago. What planet is she on? I wonder which organisation is driving this? Wouldn’t be a certain so called amateur group.
@Catherine Gaffney: plenty of other countries with higher cases have had spectators at sports it’s not that ridiculous of an idea
@Sam Harms: did you see Dungarvan,Tyrone etc? Did we seeing the same behaviour in Rugby and Soccer? And don’t bother calling me anti GAA.
@Catherine Gaffney: I’m a shamrock rovers fan and I’d be pleasantly surprised if there wasn’t some sort of gathering when we wrap up the league. It happened in Liverpool too. It’s not just the GAA but I guess they are the only sporting organisation to assume some higher social purpose in this country.
What kind of bull is this. The country is on the verge of level 4. This bull i heard in March that we are all in this together. You are having a laugh. Same people has to make big sacrifices. For what. 1095 covid cases today. And the talk of having small gigs. Get real for god sakes.
@Simon Dwyer: yeah fuqq the arts. What has culture ever done for us! She’s trying to resuscitate a vital industry here and she’s right to.
“only if the country goes back to Level 1 or 2″ could be a while unfortunately
8,000 at the game in Finland tonight
Woman is delusional
Bit strange the Great Barrington Declaration official site seems to have disappeared from search results.. https://gbdeclaration.org/
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