KATHRYN REILLY WAS a parliamentary assistant for Sinn Féin in Leinster House this time last year. Now she is the youngest member of Seanad Éireann – and the youngest member of the whole Oireachtas.

These are her thoughts on how she got to the ‘upper house’, what it means to be there – and why she thinks the Seanad can’t continue in its current form.

“Deemed to be elected” – with those four words my life had changed dramatically. Only that morning I had been sitting at a desk in Leinster House checking emails, going over policy and making preparations for Dáil business for a TD. Now I was going to have an office of my own, with staff and dawning reality of the huge weight of responsibility in terms of public representation.

When you go from being in the background to suddenly being thrust into the limelight, you notice a seismic alteration of your whole life. The buck stops with you. People come to you for action and answers. You are expected to be a fountain of knowledge on everything from the economy, public services, social welfare, planning, grants and entitlements, and any wrong answer automatically means you are incompetent, unfit for office or a bad public representative.

As a parliamentary assistant, immediately prior to being elected, I was the support and the back-up. Before running for the general or Seanad elections, I had never been a councillor. I was a political and policy advisor; I dealt with the business of the Dáil and the portfolio in which my TD specialised. I was isolated from the world of the constituency office beyond election campaigns- I was aware of most of the local issues but I never had to negotiate the myriad of social welfare, housing or council issues that a constituency office or a public representative faces everyday.

That’s why on 28 April this year my life changed spectacularly. Not many believed it would happen - least of all me. The quota was so high and the votes that Sinn Féin had on the panel did not come near close enough… Which leads me to the Seanad electoral process. For weeks in the run-up to the election, I used whatever free time I had to travel the highways and byways of Ireland meeting councillors.

I was, hoping for as high a preference as possible from those party affiliated councillors and independents alike. It was no easy feat. I believed we should allow people to have the opportunity to vote for a Sinn Féin representative on the panel and believed that the Seanad could be a vehicle to make some difference.

I appreciated the time given to me by many councillors. I was conscious that councillors are bombarded with hopeful Seanad candidates day and night. Councillors would be called to at their home and place of work; the phone is going non-stop; candidates selling promises, stories and often some come armed with goodies.

I had no free pens, notebooks, DVDs or chocolates.

As a newcomer to this process and one who was used to canvassing door-to-door on issues such as the economy, jobs or public investment, this was a culture shock. I had no free pens, notebooks, DVDs or chocolates. It was me and whichever local Sinn Féin councillor had taken the time out to give me a tour and introduce me.

Did I think I had met enough people to get the votes? No.

Did I believe I was getting all the votes I was promised? Definitely not.

But it happened.

The inside/outside rule coupled with a very complex counting system, and maybe poorly-managed vote management from some of the other parties, got me over the line. I was a Senator.

The strange reality was that since getting elected I now spend less time in Leinster House than when I worked for a TD. I now balance work between Seanad business and being out and about, especially around Cavan, making representations and engaging directly with people and groups.

I knew Leinster House like the back of my hand so, unlike some of the newer-elected representatives, I found my way around with no problems and I knew everyone on a first-name basis already. The hardest thing was getting used to the new title. People who had called me Kathryn for so long addressed me as Senator. On my first day, I was walking down the hall to my old office when someone came after me shouting “Senator! Senator!”. I walked on oblivious that it was me he was calling after!

As a new term starts, I can reflect back on my first term like this: the Seanad is full of experience and expertise however as an institution it is failing the senators and the people.

It is an opportunity for Senators to get into the local paper…

Every day the Seanad begins with a discussion on ‘Order of Business’. This is more of an opportunity for Senators to name check on issues rather than agreeing the agenda.

Senators stand up and call for debates on everything under the sun- occasionally they are granted, more often not. Many issues name checked are real issues facing our citizens - Substantive social and economic issues that really ought to be debated in the chamber and with government ministers.

While the Dáil is restricted in the interjections and contributions that can be made during Order of Business, for example, the Seanad has greater scope. While it is always favourable to allow contributions, at times it appears that as inordinate amount of time is expended on local issues, without any real concrete conclusion or follow-up – it is an opportunity for Senators with an eye to the next election to get into the local paper or on local radio.

This suits the government parties as chasing local issues takes the focus of the failings of this government. The government parties set the agenda, arrange for ministers to attend, dictate speaking rights and times.

Don’t get me wrong, the facilities available can be useful for gathering information on an important issue – for example using matters of the adjournment to get a response from a Minister or to question them – but the order of business mechanism has been abused. But this abuse can be curbed and the Seanad used to hold ministers to account.

On the first day of this Seanad, nearly every speaker spoke of Seanad reform and the preference for reformation over abolition. Have efforts been made for this, the 24th Seanad, to be a reformed one? Proposals were put forward to begin the process of changing the Seanad; to make it operate on a more inclusive basis and to open the institution up to the public.

Do I think the Seanad has a future? Honestly, no. Not in its current form.

However the government parties’ control of the Seanad has failed to address the issue of change and they continue to hide behind the accepted practise and arcane rules.

Speaking for my own party, we are in a unfavourable position because we have been denied representation on those sub-groups of the Seanad that actually inform change – the Committee on Procedure and Privileges to name one. While the election to the Seanad is neither democratic nor inclusive, Sinn Féin did receive a mandate.

One of the changes made that could be seen as a reformatory measure was a motion passed to allow outside speakers to address the House- something we have yet to properly use. But should this happen I, or my Sinn Féin colleagues, would be precluded from addressing any such person because of the sticky rule which means we aren’t a group.

So where now for the Seanad? Do I think it has a future? Honestly, no. Not in its current form. As it is, it is fundamentally flawed – from its electoral process, how it is constituted, even in what it does and how it does it.

I want to be part of delivering some much needed change that our country, this State and our people deserve. But that change has yet to start in the Seanad.

I have now accepted that my time will no longer be my own, part of it is back on the road meeting people and tackling issues and part in Dublin challenging the policies that have failed to date.