Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, Senator Norris. Having said what I said, followed by a cough, this is the definition section. The first note in the section is that the Government intends to abolish the Seanad, to provide for its abolition. What is the definition of "abolition"? It is to destroy, to do away with completely, to make null and void and to put an end to. If that is not enough, if we go to Roget's Thesaurus it indicates it is to nullify, to destroy, to abrogate, to invalidate, to cancel, to tear up, to repudiate, to unfrock, to void, to quash and to depose. The first note in the section is that the Government intends to do all of those things to Seanad Éireann but not to reform it, about which several of my honourable colleagues have begun to speak, not to reform the Dáil, nor to view the governance of our State as a whole, but instead to put a piecemeal choice before the people.

Why abolish the Seanad now without tested Dail reform? Will the Government's proposals for Dáil reform, some of which the Minister of State identified in his concluding speech last week, work? The people deserve better than this. The Government is offering a new politics that is piecemeal. Why not have a central governance referendum in 2015 that could be inclusive of constitutional reform of the Dáil as well as the Seanad so that people would have a clear choice of how they want the whole political system reformed, rather than getting supposed reform piece by piece and being forced to vote on the abolition of the Seanad without knowing what is coming in its place?