Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes. What is being done is highly personal in the context of the way in which it has been directed at the Members of the current Seanad. In my opinion, the current crop of Senators are 60 of the finest people one could meet. A total of 42 of them are new to the House and they should not be blamed for whatever misdemeanours those in government believe occurred in the past.

The Minister of State indicated on Second Stage that what is happening here is not a rerun of what occurred in 1801. It is an exact rerun of the abolition of the Grattan's Parliament in that year. We never got Grattan's Parliament back and we will not get the Seanad back if those on the Government side succeed. In his article in Patrick Geoghegan's book on the Act of Union, Dr. James Quinn states:

In the end, the passing of the Union was something of an anti-climax. Edward Cooke commented on how quietly it was received, even in Dublin. But the anti-climactic nature of the final debates on the Union to some extent obscured the magnitude of what had been accomplished. Within a year a parliament that existed for over 500 years was persuaded to agree to its own extinction.