Letter in today’s Irish Examiner
We had our chance to get rid of Seanad
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his coalition government will, by now, have recovered from the effects of the ‘wallop’ that they received from the electorate on the occasion of the referendum to abolish the Seanad.
Seanad personnel, too, can now rest easy, safe in the knowledge that for the foreseeable future they can continue laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of a country in the grip of bankruptcy. The real victim of the ‘wallop’ was the country and its people as a whole, not the Government.
It follows, that recovery in the case of the latter category will take considerably longer than it took in the case of our rulers mentioned above.
When it came to marking ballot papers, the popular idea of getting rid of that useless, expensive, institution did not seem to be of any importance any longer. Likewise, dispensing with the services of overpaid, over-pensioned senators was shelved. Instead of concentrating on what was best for the country and its people a majority of the electorate decided upon a futile, irresponsible course of action to cut off their own noses to spite their faces.
I can think of only one reasonable rational reason why anybody would vote in the way that the majority did and it is this; the democratic system allows the electorate to make a fool of themselves every now and then and so they decided to do just that.
In my view, those who voted in this way relinquish the right to blame Government for anything henceforth.
Pat Daly
Midleton
Co Cork