Sir, – The proposal from Green Party leader Eamon Ryan on the reinvention of the Seanad (Opinion, September 5th) is extraordinary. He is effectively suggesting two directly elected chambers, one for full-time politicians and another for part-timers! Imagine trying to explain that on the ballot paper. His only other condition is that candidates could not run for both chambers.
Mr Ryan says such a second chamber could “preview” legislation ahead of the Dáil and that it could and “take responsibility” for further initiatives like the recent Constitutional Convention. But his recipe is woolly and dangerous – and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the role and integrity of our legislature. He also wrongly misapplies the point about “international reviews” of our crash which lamented the groupthink that didn’t question policy. But this State groupthink was at the interface of senior civil servant/ministerial level and not in the faraway Seanad which, for all its faults, was hardly in a position to change national fiscal policy. And it is this crucial interface, incidentally, which we must continue to interrogate and improve in making thorough our systems of governance and implementation of policy. Modernising our legislature, and strengthening the actual parliament, should be a complement to that.
The Green Party leader either wilfully misapplies the point of these “international reviews” of our groupthink, or he misunderstands them. In which case, it brings to mind the cruel quip about the recent history of our Green party: that it was in the Cabinet alright, but not in government! – Yours, etc,
EAMON DELANEY,
One House 2013,
Villa Bank,
Phibsboro, Dublin 7.