Colum Kenny: A radical idea to solve Seanad accommodation problem - it should get on the road

Uninspiring, lazy and wasteful. Three words to describe plans by an unreformed Seanad Éireann to grab for itself part of the National Museum of Ireland while the Seanad Chamber in Leinster House is being refurbished.

Here was a real opportunity for Senators to display a new spirit. They might instead have decided to take the Seanad to the people. There are plenty of educational or other institutions where they could have met, in and beyond Dublin.

Instead they grab space at an adjacent institution too long neglected by Irish governments. It is reported that, for their comfort, they plan to spend up to €2 million of public money on the move, including building a walkway to avoid the rain.

In 2013 people voted to keep the Seanad, as an act of defiance to the Dáil. Promises of reform that helped to sway voters have so far amounted to little or nothing.

Senators could have decided now to put themselves out, to accept the kind of makeshift arrangements that ordinary workers and companies must suffer from time to time.

Why not, for example, meet at weekends in various school halls around Leinster, where local citizens could watch them in action? Senators don’t need fancy conditions for their work. Those within 150km of any venue could drive there and back each day or take public transport, like anyone else might.

Even if Senators have to stay in Dublin, there are big university halls that are not used 24/7. Would they put themselves out to meet in the evenings or at weekends, experiencing some of the inconvenience that many young workers in precarious employment must accept as a standard part of their jobs?

Members of the Oireachtas are cushioned by a level of expenses and other support unavailable to many other public servants, let alone to most workers in private enterprises.

While the Dáil and Seanad as democratic institutions of state require an appropriate level of dignity, there is nothing undignified in Senators of this small country setting an example of frugality.

And how “temporary” will this move into the museum really be, once the Seanad installs an expensive connecting walkway, lift and other facilities that Senators arguably could and should do without for 18 months? Heritage interests, including An Taisce, have rightly expressed concern.

The heritage of Ireland deserves to be treated with dignity. For all the talk of honouring our past, the two institutions that flank Leinster House have got by on a wing and a prayer since the British left. And now comes this insult to the museum, grabbing its chambers. The National Museum and the National Library are not the only neglected heritage bodies. It is embarrassing to visit the new Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast and to compare its facilities to those of the Republic's National Archives.

Instead of just using the National Museum as a convenience, the Seanad might have made a serious effort instead to retrieve the old Irish parliament building in College Green. Known today as a fancy branch of the Bank of Ireland facing Trinity College, this was before 1800 home to the Irish parliament, snuffed out by the Act of Union.

The Bank of Ireland was sold the building on condition that it alter it to obliterate the memory of the Irish house of commons.

Despite banks receiving massive financial support from the public during the banking collapse, Bank of Ireland has been consistently negative about giving that parliament building back to the public. But what real value has it to the bank’s shareholders when permission would never be given to build on the site? And what of national pride?

With College Green now being redesigned as a plaza, a reformed Seanad in an iconic building there might catch the public imagination – provided it had something engaging and relevant to say.

But dynamic reform still seems a long way off. Even in the minor matter of university seats, it’s still just talk.

More than 30 years ago, Irish citizens voted in overwhelming numbers to allow graduates from beyond Trinity College and the National University of Ireland to elect senators. The referendum that was held in 1979 mandated the Oireachtas (by a majority of 12 to one) to alter the system.

But necessary legislation has never been passed. Senators, recently elected by a small rump of graduates from the two university boroughs, have once more settled into their Seanad seats without even a noticeable blush.