A note following the outcome of the referendum on Saturday

The outcome wasn’t what I had hoped for. I completely respect the decision, but you probably know from previous posts that my vision for a new, reformed parliament contains one parliamentary chamber with an independent committee system that holds the government of the day to account.

In March I produced a pamphlet containing 30 simple reforms that could radically change Dáil Éireann (Reforming Dáil Éireann: A view from the backbenches, read it here). In that document I also warned that the autumn Seanad campaign risked failure if we didn’t move urgently to implement fundamental Dáil reform. Over the course of the campaign this became very clear to me – people wanted to see our credentials on Dáil reform first, before contemplating removal of the Seanad.

We have to rebuild with the people the trust that previous politicians and governments have lost, but we do that in deeds, not words.

My belief is that the referendum was lost, not because of one particular campaign message or because of the absence of the Taoiseach from a televised debate, but because the government has not yet proven its credentials on meaningful Dáil reform.

Dáil reform is then, in my opinion, far more important and urgent a task than reforming the Seanad. I think it would be a mistake if we focussed on Seanad reform to the delay or exclusion of Dáil reform. In fact, many of the needed Dáil reforms that have been put forward by myself and others would then flow naturally to the Seanad.

For example, if we loosened the whip in Dáil committees, this would impact upon the Seanad also as senators sit on these committees. If we established the principle that the Dáil should order its own affairs (i.e. schedule business, decide on the length of debates, timing of votes, guillotines etc.) then this could also easily be replicated in the Seanad. It’s not rocket science and it requires nothing more than political will on the part of the government.

There are many proposals like this that could be adopted almost immediately and which would play a strong part in the process of moving more power from the executive to the parliament. As I have quoted here before, Article 28.4.1 of our constitution states that “the Government shall be responsible to Dáil Éireann”.

The time to infuse that statement with its true meaning is now.