Vote No, and stop the centralisation of political power
Direct Democracy Ireland -
The upcoming referendum on the abolition of the Seanad made for an interesting debate within Direct Democracy Ireland that has resulted in a call for a ‘No’ vote on 4th October.
Some might think that our party principles of accountability, justice and fairness would mean that we should canvas for a Yes vote. Perhaps on a superficial level that might appear to be the correct course to take. In the future and in different circumstances we would indeed be pushing for a fully reformed system of government that will not have a need for a Seanad. However, we examined all the consequences of making such a decision at this point in time and, beyond a few cosmetic and frankly misrepresented populist changes, we felt that the overall effect of a Yes vote in the current political and social climate would be an extremely negative one.
Why should we retain the Seanad?
The Seanad’s main job is to scrutinise and propose amendments to Dáil Bills. A kind of ‘brains trust’ that ensures all Bills are constitutionally sound and make for fair legislation. Most would agree that the people and the government need this kind of ‘second opinion’ in forming legislation.
There is no doubt that in its current form the Senead has let us down in this respect. We need only look at the Bank Guarantee debacle to see where the system failed. However, with a reformed and reinvigorated Senead we could put in place a safety net to ensure that future Bills are properly scrutinized and debated to their fullest extent for the good of our citizens.
A correctly functioning Senead might well have prevented that fateful decision being taken that night.
Possibly the most important function of the Seanad however is one that very few people have ever been made aware of, including perhaps many members of the Oireachtas. Article 27 of our constitution (which will be deleted if we vote Yes) allows for the Seanad, by simple majority plus one third of the Dáil, to call on the President to hold a referendum on any Bill before him.
Imagine if people had been aware of that at the time of the bank guarantee? Might they have lobbied to have that Bill stopped? We will never know, but now the government wants to remove the last possible veto that the people have left.
Since Article 47 (which gave people the power to call their own referendum) was suppressed and removed from our Constitution by previous Governments, Article 27 is the only mechanism left for the people to propose and lobby (through their Senators) for a referendum.
Read More: directdemocracyireland.ie
Source: http://www.oneworldchronicle.com/?p=17206
