First meeting of reformed Senate

This week sees the counting of votes in what might well be the last Senate election. The main political parties have all decreed that it should be abolished.

If it is to be effective and act as some form of control over the Dáil then it needs to be radically overhauled and made relevant to the ordinary voter.
With a Government having 113 seats out of 166, we might need some control over them but they are not going to give away any of their powers to the Senate. No Government wants another body to be in a position to control its actions.
An Seanad, as presently constituted, was introduced by the Constitution of 1937. It has fairly harmless powers. Since An Taoiseach has the power to nominate 11 senators then the house has an in-built Government majority.
The last Taoiseach to make any radical use of this power of nomination was Garret Fitzgerald when he nominated Jim Dooge as a senator and then appointed him a minister.
The other 49 members are elected by outgoing senators, incoming TDs and county and city councillors. There are five ‘constituencies’ or as they are named ‘panels’. Candidates can be nominated by members of the Oireachtas or bodies with special relevance to each of the panels. The Congress of Trade Unions, for example, can nominate candidates to the Labour Panel; Comhaltas Ceoltóirí can nominate to the Cultural and Educational Panel.
It is a far cry from what was intended with the first Seanad. It had a very diverse membership and some wide-ranging powers. Unfortunately it was ignored by Cumann na nGaedheal and boycotted by the Anti-Treaty side. When Dev got into power he lost no time in “clipping its wings”, possibly because it had tried to obstruct some constitutional reforms that he had proposed.
It was envisaged that the Seanad would be directly elected by the people – 15 senators every three years. The first election was held in 1925 but the Government of the day quickly put an end to that exercise in democracy. To start the Seanad the first house was partly elected by the Dáil and partly nominated by WT Cosgrove, President of the Executive Council. That Seanad had five Earls, one Marquis, one Countess, five Baronets and two Right Honourables. It also included a Nobel Prize Winner – WB Yeats – and a President – D de hÍde. No offence to the present members or the Oireachtas but it is hard to imagine one of them winning a Nobel Prize whatever about holding a title from the Crown. 
It had some powers that no Government would like and there were systematically removed. Thirty six senators (60%) could demand a referendum on any Bill passed by the Dáil. The referendum result would be binding. To have such a power now would terrify the Government.
The first serious amendment to the powers of the Seanad was the removal of this power to call a referendum and the second was the ending of the direct elections. There were 12 amendments to the Seanad powers with the last being its abolishment.
Under the new constitution it was replaced by the Seanad we now have which had its first meeting on April 27, 1938 – 73 years ago this week.