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MINISTER RICHARD BRUTON has said that he has no problem debating with anyone on the Seanad Abolition Referendum but called for politicians to “behave in a proper fashion”.
Responding to a question about the recent conduct of Senator David Norris, who accused Regina Doherty of ‘speaking out of her f***y’, Bruton, who is Director of Elections for the government’s campaign, said “we can’t reduce to name-calling”:
(Video: © TheJournal.ie)
He said that he has “no problem debating about it with anyone who’s passionate”.
“Occasionally people will let their passions get the better of them and I’ve no problem with that either but I think we need to endeavor to manage this,” he said.
Despite the recent bickering between TDs and Senators, Bruton said that he did not think this beahaviour would distract from the debate.
“People are mature and they’re used to voting in referenda,” he said. “We have a very strong proposition in my view and the proposition is that it’s time that politics shows that it can change in the same way as every family and every business indeed is having to change.”
The abolition of the Seanad would reduce the number of national politicians by 30 per cent and save about €100 million over a five-year Dáil term. The date for the referendum has been set for Friday, 4 October.
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This is Kenny’s Brain child, and so, he must defend it. Common sense. You can say whatever you want about the senad but at least it’s there, in some small way holding the government to account.
You never truly miss something until it is gone.
The Seanad is useless. That’s widely accepted.
Reform is the preferred option by the majority.
The problem is what will this reform look like. Every bodies opinion of reform differs. It will end up a diluted form of preferred options and remain useless. I will not vote to keep the Seanad in the hope it will be reformed in to my opinion of what might work.
For that reason I will be voting to abolish the Seanad unless some body can come up with a good argument to persuade me otherwise.
The Seanad does not hold anyone to account get rid of it now
Wouldnt it be better if enda kenny debated this? Or anything for that matter..
He can’t debate on tv, the drool glistens too much.
5 point plan
One problem he may have debating it is… Him and the rest of them won’t be back in the dail to debate anything until the 18th of September.
At the last sitting of Lenister house the senators in their final statements said to each other (And I quote one of many similar statements) ” we have all worked really hard we deserve this break, in order to come back fresh after the summer” 9 WEEKS HOLIDAYS, 9 WEEKS !! and thats not including the Winter 5 WEEKS break, the Easter break 3 WEEKS.
We are idiots, these guys regard themselves as above the ordinary Irish persons struggle while they live it up on OUR money, all the while cutting ordinary civil servants and vital front line workers allowances with the excuse the country is broke……….. Democracy me ar$e !!
Not a red cent…
Well put Martin. Doesn’t anyone else in the country work hard? Like the frontline workers? And many more like them?
Enda debating, could do with the laugh!
If his demolition by Michael McDowell on the radio was anything to go by, I would have thought the last thing the Government will want to do is let him debate with anyone.
This €100 million savings over 5 years has that been confirmed by independent auditors? After all we know to our cost the dept of Finance mandarins are not that great with figures.
That’s 20 million a year, why didn’t they say that? They can’t even manage 100,000 jobs over four years, that’s 25,000 a year for the FG heads on here!
Come on then Mr Bruton – I’ll have a go at ya any day for the reform of something that would keep you in check – Martin Critten – National Independent Party
That I’d like to see.. Bruton and that other weasel Kennys grubby little fascist power grab needs to be defeated.
Have to laugh at edna, comes up with the idea but can’t debate it himself. Truly pathetic
I woke up back when our government bailed out the banks ( smallest bailout in history my hole ) and the opposition backed too FG labour and sein fein since then you can clearly see they have being lying to us constantly so whenever the government say they want to inact a law or tax for whatever reason I cannot bring myself to believing them voting no to the abolishing but would vote for the reform it was put their for a reason to keep tabs on Enda and the boys in the Dail give it the powers to do that with open public voting
This is it. They don’t keep tabs. They never have. It’s a big expensive rubber stamp. How can we keep it. It’s a joke.
The Seanad should be kept and reformed. The number of TD’s needs to
be cut to 60. That’s where real saving could be made but turkeys don’t vote for Xmas. If this was put to the people
It would be passed without a doubt.
VOTE TO KEEP THE SEANAD.
Yet he had a problem speaking to Tony Rochford when he was on his HUNGER STRIKE. And he was right beside the guy.
Feel free to come to Cork and debate with I and others involved with Democracy Matters
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