Has Ivor Callely sealed the fate of the Seanad?
HAS Ivor Callely sealed the fate of the Seanad with his outrageous expenses claim from his holiday home in west Cork? History might well record that he did just that.
After all, the Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, has said that he will have a referendum to abolish the Seanad if he is elected Taoiseach.
There will be huge pressure on Kenny and his Government to deliver on promises if they secure power, given the lamentable, and sometimes arrogant, performance of the present Government.
A new kind of politics will be demanded of Kenny. Should he fail to deliver, the reaction from the media and voters will be decisive and brutal. Against such a background, Kenny will have to honour his pre-election pledges. And that would include a referendum to abolish the Seanad.
In the current climate, such a referendum would be carried overwhelmingly. It would be a pity to see the Seanad abolished. On balance, it has served the State well. O
ver the years, it has provided a balance for the Upper House, and some outstanding individuals have graced its floor.
But that was then. Now, the Seanad is a lumbering and, mostly, useless assembly out of tune with the modern times. At it costs a lot of money at a time of austerity.
The Seanad could be doing so much work in the area of meeting high-powered deputations and the demanding ministerial accountability on the issues raised.
There is much other work it could be doing. Serious reform is called for. The Government is immobile on the issue.
The Seanad, for instance, is not sitting this week. The Leader of the House, Senator Donie Cassidy, it has been reported, has been on a golfing holiday with other Oireachtas members at the invitation of the Turkish
authorities. You could not make it up if you tried.
The Callely expenses claim, and those made by others in the Seanad, will add, yet again, to the corrosive level of public cynicism that exists about politics in Ireland.
Some members of the Oireachtas are now so well paid that it has left them hopelessly out of touch with the reality of most people's lives. What must the unemployed think? What must those public servants, who have been forced to take pay cuts, and are being asked to think of more productive work practices in the future, make of it all?
In fairness to the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, he moved fast on the Callely debacle, showing a level of decisiveness not evident in a long time. Shame that he was not equally decisive about the Dail, which the Government reduced to the level of, arguably, unprecedented disgrace this week.
The Dail is sitting for short periods on this Wednesday and Thursday, without any facility for questions. Hence there can be no consideration of the banking report, arguably one of the most important documents to be published in decades.
Life is easy for the Government when the Dail is not sitting. Sure, there are Cabinet meetings and routine ministerial business. But when the Dail is sitting there is what all Taoisigh and Ministers hate: enforced accountability.
Brian Cowen and his Ministers are codding nobody by running from the accountability to the public, via parliament, which should be the stock-in-trade of any democracy.
And a thousand speeches from the Taoiseach, long-winded or otherwise, will not create the kind of spin that the Government desires as long as it fails to provide accountability through the Dail and reform the Seanad to make it a competent and relevant institution.
Golfing holidays, paid for by another country or otherwise, indeed holidays of any kind, should hardly be a priority for our politicians in the current dreadful economic climate in which we live in this now wretched country. There is more on the agenda than the economy.
What kind of a State, with even a modicum of Christianity or social concern, would treat children the way they have been treated in Ireland?
It was revealed this week that some children in State care have not had a visit from a social worker for up to 10 years or more. Does this not cry to heavens for vengeance against our political masters who squandered the resources of this State when the exchequer was awash with money?
Were they so busy lining up fat salaries, unvouched expenses, State cars, travel and so on, that they could not introduce the kind of system within the health services which would, at least, protect vulnerable children? It is truly shocking.
Other revelations were that record-keeping was so poor that inspectors have had difficulties establishing an accurate number for children in foster care. Children as young as five were placed in supported lodgings, a more independent form of care designed for people in their mid to late teens. This is the Ireland to today.
We now know that, for decades, this State lived a lie under that old clown Dev and other leaders, not least old W T Cosgrave, when it came to the care of children in orphanages. Horror stories were to emerge decades later. But the horror stories go on and on.
This week, in Dublin, 17-year-old Daniel McAnaspie was buried. A native of Finglas, in the north side of the city, his parents were dead and he was in the care of the Health Service Executive since 2003.
He failed to return to his accommodation on February 26. His body was found in a drain in Rathfeigh, Co Meath, on May 13, and a post-mortem revealed Daniel had been stabbed to death. Had Daniel ever a chance under this State? It is questionable if he did.
The clich is that one measures the Christianity of a State by how it treats its most vulnerable. And the very young are included in that category.
The social justice campaigner, Fr Peter McVerry, said at Daniel's funeral that his life had been prematurely destroyed and a family devastated. The teenager's death, he said, was "unnecessary and tragic'', and he added that the lives of the innocent families of those who had perpetrated the murder had also been destroyed.
Will his death be in vain? Will it prompt the kind of measures that will lead to a more effective childcare system whereby nobody in Daniel McAnaspie's circumstances will ever be in a vulnerable situation again? We do not know.
Any Government responsible for the dysfunctional Health Service Executive would not inspire confidence. Why does the Government not make more use of people like Fr McVerry who has been involved in the care of homeless children for many years.
Surely he should be a part-time adviser to the Government on the issue, with regular access to Government buildings?
Last Thursday morning, Ministers leered at the Opposition when it demanded full Dail sittings this week. It was an unedifying sight. The Taoiseach should personally take Dail and Seanad reform on hand. Now.
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Weather for Tullamore
Wednesday 08 February 2012
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