Abolishing a Senate

For John, BLUF:  Net saving in money, I would say.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From the Toranto [Canada] Star we have "Our politicians watch as Irish Senate faces extinction".  The reporter, Tim Harper gets as his sub-headline "There may be not be enough Irish ayes to save its Upper House in a referendum, killing yet another Senate".

It’s derided as a toothless, bloated debating society, an anachronism in 2013, a den of patronage and a political body that delivers nothing for its price tag.

And this week, the Senate could be killed.

Not here, of course, but in Ireland where voters can pronounce on the future of their Upper House in a Friday referendum.

The one-time home of William Butler Yeats is not expected to survive, continuing a trend worldwide of discredited upper houses being loudly retired.

Here is one person's description of the Irish Seanad (Senate):

The Senate of the 26-County Irish state was reinstituted, and improved, in Éamonn de Valera's 1937 "Éire" Constitution (which was republican in all but name, but, with an eye to the eventual re-unification of Ireland, which retained membership of the British Commonwealth).  It is an advisory and consultative body, drawn from a variety of sources, and chosen by a variety of methods (including patronage).  A new system of Vocational Panels used to nominate candidates for the Seanad was inspired by Roman Catholic social teaching of the 1930s, and in particular the 1931 papal encyclical Quadrogesimo Anno.  In this document Pope Pius XI argued that the Marxist concept of class conflict should be replaced with a vision of social order based on the cooperation and interdependence of society's various vocational groups.

For you Gaelic readers, this person closes with Is mise, le móir-mheas.

Do you think we could get Harry Reid's US Senate next?

Regards  —  Cliff