SINN FÉIN:THE SEANAD "in its present form" should be abolished, the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams said yesterday.
Mr Adams made his comments in Dundalk yesterday morning after handing in his nomination papers to the county registrar and returning officer for Louth, Mairéad Ahern.
Ireland needed a good conversation about political reform, he said. “Some systems are best served by one assembly and others by two. There needs to be a very, very clear definition of the roles of each (House of the Oireachtas).”
Mr Adams said the Seanad is undemocratic and is “a hand-down the old system, and I speak with some experience of the British House of Lords and all of that nonsense and that is based upon privilege . . . so they just replaced one ruling elite by another ruling elite.
“We say it should be abolished in its present form,” but should firstly be “subject to universal suffrage, that’s if it’s kept at all, I am not arguing for it to be kept.”
He called for a discussion on the role of both Houses of the Oireachtas: “Let’s have a discussion about it, let’s take decisions on it and then let’s act.”
Asked about the proposed visit of Queen Elizabeth to Ireland, Mr Adams said: “I don’t think the queen should come.
“There are hugely unresolved matters in terms of the British still claiming – even though in terms of the Good Friday agreement they have moved away from the Government of Ireland Act, it has been done away with not least because of Sinn Féin diligence during those negotiations – I think it’s premature and too soon.”
He said that when things have bedded down and when “we have right across this island a dispensation based entirely upon the wishes of all of us who live here and no British jurisdiction at all, then that might be a better matter.”
He said it was important to continue to foster good relationships with our nearest neighbours and, “they are, after all, our closest offshore island”.