Craic On

The people voted to keep the Seanad. However, that doesn’t mean to say that they are happy with it. Virtually everyone thinks it is virtually useless.

What the referendum was really about was the Dail. The real question that everyone was voting on was “Do you think that the Dail is competent enough to run the country on its own?”

That’s the question that people were really answering – and they answered with a majority No verdict.

Power Crazy

Despite the fact that the Seanad has virtually no power and is stuffed full of political cronies, our top parties and politicians wanted it abolished. They believed that they were sufficient to run the country. They wanted all power concentrated in the Dail.

Politicians love power. That’s why they get into politics in the first place. Even when they are in power they want more. The Dail wanted the Seanad gone.

However, the people gave a vote of No Confidence in the Dail. They gave a vote of No Confidence in those that refused to let Anglo-Irish go under costing the country €31bn and each family in Ireland around €21,000 each. They gave a vote of No Confidence in those who were too mealy-mouthed when they were told by the EU and IMF that the German banks, who made bad investment decisions in loaning to Anglo-Irish, AIB etc. to give 120% mortgages to people who had previously not been able to save a cent, would have to be given all their money back again by the Irish taxpayer who stood to make nothing at all from the original deals.

Checks and Balances

The people have told them that they want some other chamber to monitor them and to keep checks and balances on them. Despite what the politicians in the Dail are saying now, the last thing they want is to have another powerful chamber. That’s what the people want, of course, but it is the politicians who are in power and who decide these matters.

If there is ever to be a fully elected Seanad with power then it will have to be a medicine forced down the throats of reluctant Dail politicians.