Seanad Éireann

The Seanad Éireann ( pronunciation: [ ɕan̪ ˠ AD ˠ e: r ʲ ān ˠ ], Senate of Ireland) is the official name of the Irish House of Lords within the Oireachtas, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland. In contrast to the lower house, Dáil Éireann, the Senate is not elected directly, but consists of members who are elected or appointed in different ways. The powers are much lower than that of the Dáil; so it is the Senate, for example, only possible to delay a bill, but not to reject this. The Senate meets in Leinster House in Dublin.

• 3.1 Free State Senate ( 1922-1936 )
• 3.2 The modern Senate since 1937

Composition

The Senate consists of 60 members:

The election to the Senate must take place no later than 90 days after the general election by the Constitution. The election shall be held by the system single transferable vote. Senate member can be anyone who can run for the lower house, but a lower house membership excludes a simultaneous Senate membership.

Party affiliations of the current 24th Senate since 2011

Powers

The powers of the Senate are similar to the House of Lords House of Lords. It was intended from the outset that the Senate play a more advisory role and be tested and should not be equal to the House. Hence it is that every law must be approved by both houses, but the Senate may have only postpone.

Per the Constitution, the Senate has the following limitations:

• In the event that a bill is approved by the House and the Senate this not also be approved within 90 days, the Dáil within the next 180 days can assume that this proposed law is tolerated.
• A draft budget must be approved within 21 days by the Senate
• In the event of an urgent legislative proposal, the time in which the Senate must agree to be shortened by the Government in consultation with the President. This does not apply to constitutional amendments.

But the Senate also has the following rights in order to strengthen its position:

• It may ask for a Decision by the President to set up a committee to decide whether a particular legislative proposal relates to the household or not. The President may, however, reject this request.
• If a majority of senators and at least one third of the members in the House are convinced that a bill of great " national importance ", the President may refuse to consent to the law until put to the vote in a referendum or proof by a newly elected lower house was confirmed a choice.

The Senate alone his " Rules of Procedure ", determines himself its President, the Cathaoirleach, sets up its own committees and appoint senators to joint meetings of Parliament. A maximum of two senators may be a member of the government. The Senate currently has three committees, one of which has two sub-committees:

• Election Committee
• Committee procedures and privileges Subcommittee members
• Subcommittee on Senate reform

History

The first parliamentary upper house in Ireland since the Middle Ages, the House of Lords within the Parliament of Ireland. Like its British counterpart was the House of Lords at that time solely of members of the nobility with hereditary titles. After the dissolution of Parliament by the Act of Union in 1800, Ireland had until the 20th century, no independent parliament.

1919 Irish nationalists led a non-judicial ( and unacknowledged ) Parliament under the name of Dáil Éireann, which consisted only of a chamber and no upper house included. 1920 südirische Parliament was established by British law, the Senate had called a House of Lords. The Senate of Southern Ireland consisted of a mixture of Irish nobles and senators, who were determined by the government. The Senate convened for the first time in 1921, but was boycotted by Irish nationalists, so that he was never really able to act. With the introduction of the Irish Free State in 1922 the südirische Senate was disbanded.

Free State Senate (1922-1936)

The Seanad Éireann name was first used as the name of the upper house of the Irish Free State. The first Senate consisted of a mixture of people who were determined directly by the President of the Executive Council or elected indirectly by the lower house. It was intended that the Senate should be elected directly by the people in the end, but after the first direct elections of the system has been abolished and replaced by an indirect election. The Free State was dissolved in 1936.

The modern Senate since 1937

The modern Senate was established by the Irish Constitution in 1937. This Senate was the direct successor of the Free States Senate, so that the first Senate under the new constitution as "Second Seanad " ( Second Senate ) was called.

The new system of classification of candidate occupational groups was influenced by the Roman Catholic social doctrine of the 1930s, which was partly based on Marxist concepts of class conflicts.

Reform efforts

Since 1928 there were twelve independent reports overdue reforms of the Senate, in which, inter alia, the abolition of the Upper House was demanded. The criticism of the Senate after 1937 has a number of reasons: The Senate is considered " weak" and dominated by the government. Furthermore, there are allegations of " cronyism " in the appointment of its members, since senators were often close confidante of the Taoiseach or non-elected Dáil members.

Furthermore, it is true largely in agreement that the choice by occupation does not work as it was originally intended. It is often argued that many of the candidates do not possess such knowledge in their assigned group and that the nomination process is still dominated by party affiliations.

The universities have a long tradition in the selection of independent candidates. But here, critics counter that the system is elitist at the universities to select the senators. Interest groups, such as the Graduate Equality, calling for the right to vote should be extended to the junior schools to choose from. Otherwise, this proposal does not go far enough; they require that at least a part of the Senate elected directly by the people and also the Irish emigrants or the population must be taken into account by Northern Ireland. In the past, the Prime Minister had among their candidates often also respected personalities from Northern Ireland, for example, Gordon Wilson, Seamus Mallon and Joe Hendron.

The exact composition of the Senate was originally established by the Constitution. 1979 was acknowledged by the seventh constitutional amendment the Parliament the right to expand the electorate by law at the universities of the other training centers. The idea was that all higher education institutions were given the right to participate in the Senate election, but to date this law was not introduced.

The latest report of the Senate comes from the April 2004, and was created by a subcommittee of the Senate. But the "Report on Senate reform ," the better chances in the run were attributed to success as its predecessors, recommended no fundamental changes to the powers of the Upper House. However, it was suggested that the choice abolished by professional groups, 32 seats filled by direct elections, extended the election to the universities to all higher education institutions and that the Taoiseach should be formally encouraged to use its votes in favor, to a representation of Northern Ireland to guarantee the church and other minorities. Another proposal is to give the Senate new tasks, such as a greater role in reviewing the government and in the EU legislation.

Referendum 2013

After the 2011 general election Fine Gael and the Labour Party entered into a coalition government. In the associated coalition agreement was agreed to abolish the Senate. After the appropriate bill had a parliamentary majority found, it was submitted to the people in a referendum on October 4, 2013 vote. Prime Minister Enda Kenny said ahead of the vote, the Senate is an outdated and ineffective institution that suited rather to the political ideas of the 1930s. Fianna Fail spoke out against the abolition, advocating instead a reform of the Upper House. In the referendum, 51.7 percent strongly opposed the abolition of the Senate, only 48.3 percent of them were in favor.

Famous Irish Senators

• Douglas Hyde
• William Butler Yeats
• James Campbell
• Seamus Mallon
• Mary Robinson
• David Norris
• Noel Browne
• James Ryan
• Eoin Ryan, senior
• Eoin Ryan junior
• Roger Harris