Among the facts contained in the Seanad booklet which we launched today are: •The Seanad costs €20million every year according to the independent Oireachtas Commission which is responsible for running the Seanad. This is the only independent figure available • The Seanad was elected by 1% of the population • 90% of Senators are elected exclusively by other politicians • Every one of the 43 Senators elected on the ‘vocational panel’ system in 2011 was a fully-whipped member of one of the major political parties • The most significant power the Seanad has is to delay a piece of legislation by 90 days – and it has only exercised this power twice in its history, most recently in 1964 •Many politicians have 6 or 7 votes in Seanad elections, while the vast majority of the population has no vote at all •We have 33% more politicians than the average in all other European countries of our size •30 countries abolished their second chambers during the 20th century • Out of the 16 non-federal countries in the OECD with populations less than 15 million, only Ireland and Slovenia have second chambers – and many experts say that Slovenia’s is not a proper second chamber finegael.ie/latest-news/2013/facts-overwhelmingly-supp/index.xml
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 14:31:02 +0000
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