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James Reilly "honoured" to join Seanad he once called "very undemocratic" and with "no power"

In a 2013 statement calling for the Seanad to be abolished, Reilly labelled it “very undemocratic” and said it had “no power.”

1/7/2010 Fine Gael's New Front Bench Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Updated: 2.35 pm Saturday

FORMER MINISTER JAMES Reilly has told TheJournal.ie he is “honoured” to be appointed to the Seanad by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, despite his fierce criticism of the institution during the campaign to abolish it.

In 2013 Reilly, who lost his Dáil seat in February’s general election, called the Seanad “very undemocratic”, and criticised the fact that “90% of Senators are elected by existing politicians.”

The former Minister for Health, and later for Children, also said “the Seanad has very little power.”

TheJournal.ie asked Reilly how he reconciled those attacks with joining the Seanad now, and whether he viewed the manner his appointment as democratic. In response, Reilly said in a statement:

I am honoured to be appointed to the Seanad by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and look forward to continuing my work as a legislator in the new Seanad.
The people had their say in the Seanad referendum of 2013 and chose to maintain the Seanad – that’s democracy.
Fine Gael is wholly supportive of Seanad reform which is long overdue. The Programme for Government has a specific section on Seanad reform and commits to the implementation of the Manning report as a matter of priority.
It is also worth noting that under the new strengthened Oireachtas Committee system, Senators will play a very significant role in the legislative process through Committee work, as well as through their work in the Seanad itself.

In September 2013, a few weeks before the unsuccessful campaign to abolish the Seanad, Reilly strongly criticised the institution on Facebook, saying:

The reality is the Seanad is very undemocratic; just 1% of the population elected the current Seanad, and only 3% of the population is entitled to vote in Seanad elections in the first place. 90% of Senators are elected by existing politicians.
Furthermore, the Seanad has very little power. It can only delay, not overturn, legislation, and the last time it actually did so was in 1964. This rubbishes any suggestion that abolishing the Seanad is a power grab; the Seanad has no power to grab.
Most of the time, the Seanad rubberstamps legislation that has already been approved by the Dáil. We don’t need a second chamber that simply replicates the work of the Dáil.

He also emphasised the difficulty of reforming the body, rather than scrapping it:

Some of the debate on the Seanad has centred around the suggestion that it should be reformed. But ten reports have been published on Seanad reform in its 75 years of existence, and nothing has changed.

You can read James Reilly’s September 2013 statement in full, here.

Of the Taoiseach’s 11 nominees, six supported the referendum on the abolition of the Seanad in 2013.

They are all Fine Gael TDs who lost their seats at February’s general election: James Reilly, Michelle Mulherin, Frank Feighan, John O’Mahony, Ray Butler and Paudie Coffey, a former Minister of State.

Three other nominees were put forward at the instigation of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin: Joan Freeman, Colette Kelleher and Pádraig O’Céidigh.

Businessman O’Céidigh in 2013 expressed his support for the retention and reform of the Seanad, but we could find no record of the other two nominees articulating any previous position on it.

As he did in 2011, Kenny also nominated outgoing Independent Senator Marie-Louise O’Donnell, who has supported reforming the Seanad.

The remaining nominee, Billy Lawless, is not known to have taken any position during the referendum campaign in 2013.

We sent the Taoiseach’s office several questions for this article, but his spokespersons were not in a position to respond by publication time.

Originally published: 8.08 pm Friday

Read: Here’s who the Taoiseach has chosen to fill the remaining Seanad seats>

Read: Here’s how the country voted in the Seanad Referendum>

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147 Comments
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    Mute Bill Clay
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    Jan 9th 2019, 4:43 PM

    And as they stand solemnly, quietly in reflection over the past 100 years, they raise their heads, look at each other and burst out laughing that they’re still getting away with it

    171
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    Mute Anthony Murphy
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    Jan 9th 2019, 4:51 PM

    There still on their xmas holidays ffs

    77
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    Mute Mark Johnson
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    Jan 9th 2019, 4:49 PM

    a special joint session..like a Marijuana session ?

    41
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    Mute Irish Spider-Man
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:26 PM

    My grandfathers last word::
    Son… it doesn’t matter who you sleep with or what drugs you take but never vote for the Blueshirts

    52
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    Mute GerryCummins
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    Jan 9th 2019, 11:56 PM

    @Irish Spider-Man: thought it would be “”don’t forget I was in the GPO in ’16″ lol

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    Mute GerryCummins
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    Jan 9th 2019, 11:57 PM

    @Irish Spider-Man: you were also your Grandfather’s son.. furked up that family so!

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    Mute Adrian
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    Jan 9th 2019, 4:44 PM

    They could probably re-enact it too if they call a general election and we can wipe out the horrendous current shower of FF and FG idiots in 2019.

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    Mute Daniel Roche
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:06 PM

    @Adrian: you do realize if there was election this year, either FF or FG would still be in government,what’s the point in wasting tax payers money when know the result already.

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    Mute davey boy
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:07 PM

    @Adrian: And replace them with who? Sinn Fein…

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    Mute MickN
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:22 PM

    @davey boy: There the usual line thrown out, decades and decades have been shared between the two and we have seen the country being bankrupt , a deplorablehousing crisis ,they have assisted banks in robbing people, put unsecured bonds ahead of the people, but sure they are grand leave them at it.
    Giving themselves pay increases while telling nurses be glad of the pitance they are on, but our gombeen nation says gimme more of that, I despair, we deserve all we get……

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    Mute Adrian
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:30 PM

    @davey boy: and the irish parlimentary party fellas were probably saying the same thing before the 1918 general election!

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    Mute Donal Desmond
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:57 PM

    @davey boy: Well the record of the Blueshirts/F.F. since the foundation of the free state is clearly shown today by the mess the country is in..Do you not find it ironic that the F.F. party that facilitated in the gangsterism of the banks and developers and brought this country to it knees, now keep in power the blueshirts who imposed draconian austerity measures to repay for the gangsterism of the banks and developers . Some record to be proud of there.
    .

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    Mute davey boy
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    Jan 9th 2019, 7:36 PM

    @Donal Desmond: I don’t vote for either FF or FG but there is no alternative.
    Labour abandoned their values.
    Sinn Fein are professional fence sitters.
    Greens want to tax anything with a boiler or an engine.
    SD, Just not enough of them.
    Independents. All single issues lunatics.

    9
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    Mute Adrian
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    Jan 9th 2019, 9:29 PM

    @davey boy: i think it doesn’t need to be a case of nobody else to vote for. Thats what these idiots want you to think. If both FF and FG combined support drops to a level of say low 40′s, they cannot collude to form a gov simply because they don’t have the support, they might look for a rainbow type gov, hard to achieve anything with that, but then more options might emerge in terms of who to vote for if another election is called soon after.

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    Mute GerryCummins
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    Jan 9th 2019, 11:54 PM

    @Donal Desmond: anyone using “Blueshirts, Posh boy, Neo Liberal, FFG” etc, must have only woken up yesterday…. its the default for anyone who can’t reason… buzz words, that identify the user of those words as someone who hasn’t lived long enough to experience life! And no I’m not an apologist for any politician or Party..I’m “A” political…..

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    Mute Lobert Rester
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:14 PM

    Never have so many done so little for people they are supposed to represent. An utter waste of money! Over paid, underperforming parasites.

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    Mute Bill Clay
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:22 PM

    @Lobert Rester: the sad reality being that most of them would be re-elected if an election was called

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    Mute Danny G
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:03 PM

    It’s an awful pity that Marty McFly and Doc Brown didn’t do a trip back to 09011919 to warn them boys of their future successors!! They could have filled the car with poitín or cowshite to get it back to 1985 if they were stuck!

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    Mute John Mc Donagh
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:07 PM

    Some of our perfect patriots claim to be their natural successors!

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    Mute Nigel o'Neill
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    Jan 9th 2019, 5:18 PM

    Different age, same government

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    Mute paul jones
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    Jan 9th 2019, 6:00 PM

    Talk about a bubble

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