Irish Seanad abolition referendum

[tricky]

As FF were heavily involved in the No campaign I should congratulate our European Liberal colleagues.

[johnloony]

Map
www.independent.ie/blog/seanad-referendum-interactive-map-of-results-from-all-constituencies-29636649.html

[irish observer]

Oct 2, 2013 20:33:31 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

But if they abolish the Seanad...what will Ivana Bacik do?

As I detest the woman this was the potential reason that I might have voted yes for abolition. As indicated below with Oisín Quinn being a prospective candidate it is very unlikely she would be at the races at the next Dáil election. Even still Humphreys is a long established former councillor and if they retain a seat there he could still be in the mix. Quinn's seat has been lost before and the middle class/public sector vote are very volatile. It is assumed Ruairi will retire and may be a candidate for EU Commissioner or possibly MEP as recent rumours say.

[Deleted]

I am fairly pleased with the outcome even though, as I believe I have expressed in the past, I am not a fan of the Seanad. It needs drastic reform, as does the Dail, but Enda Kenny's bizarre behaviour in this campaign made the case for abolition appear weak and the whole referendum little more than a vanity exercise.

[irish observer]

Oct 5, 2013 16:09:04 GMT Devonian said:

Jun 17, 2013 12:46:58 GMT irish observer said:

I will be voting no because while at present the Seanad is an exclusive institution it needs reform rather than abolition.

Well done on the result. Do you think there will be much of a political impact from this result?

Full results here
www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/referendum-2013/seanad-results

Thanks. What is interesting is the utter inaccuracy of the polls during the campaign. The final result demonstrated that the yes vote was soft and not motivated to turnout unlike the no side. There was a higher urban turnout than a rural turnout and Dublin and the commuter belt won it for the no side. All constituencies with a university, except Limerick city, voted no. While our turnout figures are poor our electoral register is very bad particularly in Dublin and we need an independent Electoral Commission asap.

Enda Kenny dreamed up this referendum as a cheap measure to gain populist support. It was completely associated with him yet he refused to defend the referendum in 2 national debates, arguing that the Taoiseach doesn't debate. This made him appear a coward in people's eyes and it is known he is a poor debater. Richard Bruton, who tried to depose him before, was the National Director of Elections and may get some of the blame but it rests with Kenny.

Sinn Féin were going to oppose the referendum, arguing for a reformed Seanad. However, Pearse Doherty, the Finance spokesperson argued that the party should not link up with Fianna Fáil at any time. One point made by the No side was that the Seanad is an area where people resident in the North can actually vote in an election in the south (if they've gone to University there) and while elitist that link shouldn't be removed. SF voters voted overwhelmingly no in working class constituencies such as Dublin SC, Dublin NW, Dublin C and even Dublin SW based on tallies. In my own constituency many strong SF areas recorded a heavy no. This has greatly damaged Doherty and McDonald only reluctantly argued the case in debates. They'll think again before trying to go into the centre.

From a party perspective Fianna Fáil are very happy. We gave Enda a needed kick up the arse. The party set out arguments to reform the Seanad and needs to carry them forward. They rubbished the €20m cost saving argument together with the Democracy Matters group containing many prominent Senators, some former Senators and TDs including Michael McDowell, media and lawyers. In addition the Reform Alliance, who were expelled from FG, led by Lucinda Creighton, also opposed abolition. Together they demonstrated the Constitution is too important to be torn up in haste.

[irish observer]

Oct 5, 2013 19:18:30 GMT erlend said:

The court of appeal one seems to have been given a remarkably consistent nod of appeal. Only Donegal NE being under 60% and just the Southside of County Dublin (S SE and Dun Laoghaire) being over 70%.

I think if I had been Irish I might have been on the winning side twice. While I do not necessarily disagree with the abolition of the Senate, I am unkeen on making serious constitutional change purely for financial reasons. But the lack of an appeal court appears to have been damaging to justice by creating serious backlogs at the Supreme Court.

I voted no as it happens. I think it important to highlight the overall lack of debate on this issue as some people only thought there was one referendum. I do not favour having several referenda on the one day that involve significant constitutional change. Several leading lawyers indicated that this court was no panacea and I don't like the idea of creating more judges for the sake of it, with no guarantee they will not be politically appointed.