Minister for State Brian Hayes, in substituting an ad hominem attack on Michael McDowell for rational arguments for or against the abolition of Seanad Eireann (Comment, June 13), thereby ignores the key issue. The fact is that the Government's proposal to abolish the Seanad would further weaken the already meagre parliamentary and constitutional restraints on government.

This is not the first time Irish governments have sought to weaken such restraints:

• Cumann na nGaedhael undermined their own 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State by serial amendments, including tampering with the mechanism for amending the Constitution so as to facilitate further amendment.
• Fianna Fail abolished the Free State Senate in 1936, only to reinstate a second chamber in the 1937 Constitution.
• Fianna Fail attempted to abolish Proportional Representation (PR) in 1959, and the proposal was defeated precisely because it was seen as a grab for power.
• A second referendum on PR, and another to vary the ratio of TDs to population, were both heavily defeated in 1968.

The present proposal to abolish the Seanad must be resisted in the interests of preserving some semblance of democratic accountability in this country.

Felix M Larkin
Address with editor
Irish Independent, 18 June 2013