Shame it hasn’t been recognised that religion is and should be a personal matter/lifestyle and should not drive an entire nation state and all it’s myriad of citizens

Don’t tell me they can claim for a daily prayer allowance, as well.

Christ almighty have they nothing else to be working on? Do some work yiz gobshites

What the bloody hell has praying got to do with running the country?? Oh hold on a sec…

You seriously would wonder at times if politicians really do have any sense of connection with the people.

Do they honestly expect credit from the public when they see them debating such petty items while Rome burns!

How do they think these petty items will be perceived by the public ?

Perhaps they could extend the period of silent reflection to 9 hours a day and let us all share the peace.

It should be removed altogether. Public prayer is not Christian anyways. If Christians actually read their bible, they would know that.

the daily prayer? is the seanad run by a religious order or is it a democratically elected body, oh wait, its neither

“Dear Lord, give me the courage to admit to the people of Ireland that I am in fact paid a fortune to do bugger all, that I make no contribution whatsoever to the economic, social or political viability of the country. But God, don’t give me the courage just yet, wait ’til I’ve clocked up a really decent lump sum and gotten enough publicity to successfully run for Europe; then I can milk that gravy train. Amen”

I’m an atheist, thank God.

What a load of shite. There should be none prayer at all. Or maybe we should all be paid to pray at work.

Why can’t they leave it at a moments silence and reflection. why can’t those who want to pray do it silently during the moment of reflection?
Why does our government need to recite a set of spells and chants before starting work?

an absolute joke. the sooner the seanad is gotten rid of the better!

Prayer? What? I object strongly to senators wasting time with this kind of cultish behaviour when they are on the clock. If you want to practice some ancient middle eastern goat herder rituals then do it on your own time.

Ha ha …. This is just too funny …
God Rest Frank Carson , but he would get such a laugh outta this one …

Saying a prayer before they start their daily proceedings! WHY?, to WHO exactly are they praying? God?, which one? Why are these muppets even wasting time on this nonsense in the first place. If they believe in God(s) then can’t they do it on their own time, before they even go anywhere near the Seanad, it’s not like there aren’t any churches etc around the place, or maybe they could do it in their office. Religion has no place in politics and the waste of space that is the Seanad should at least try to give the tax payer a modicum of value for money instead of murmuring invocations to some fantasy deity. Whilst their at it they can write a letter to Santa Claus!

What a joke. When I go to work the office doesn’t stand for a poxy prayer. Do your jobs u idiots and stop wasting time. There should be no prayer or moments silence. This is ridiculous.

Fair play to the Seanad, another radical strategic brainwave that is going to sort out the social welfare problems in Ireland, reduce hospital beds waiting times.. your a waste of hardworking taxpayers euros.

They should replace the prayer with the pause for reflection and be done with it.

Why can’t the Christian members feck off to church to pray? I’m sick to the teeth of seeing ‘Christian’ members of our government pull strokes, lie and cheat and and then pander to the moral code of a religious belief to further underline their hypocrisy!
And true Christian believers think that’s the way it should stay?
The Christian religion is under such attack from the liars, cheats, paedophiles and criminals in it’s ranks that you would think that prayers from the mouths of these reprobates would be an insult to their beliefs, but there you go…!

Ivana get my name in the news

They should replace the 30 seconds silence with 30 seconds of argument in favour of continuing the Seanad; I’d be surprised if they could fill 10 seconds. Ivana Batshit and the rest of that shower of useless unelected wasters should GTFO and stop wasting our time and money.

Another reason to shut down the seanad. If there stupid enough to believe in religion then there too stupid to be making laws

The idea of a Republic is the complete separation of Church and State. The fact that Catholics see religious neutrality as an attack on their religion shows just how deep Catholic culture has affected Ireland. I think most of Ireland recognises this but as usual our politicians are lagging behind. The Fianna Failers Republican Party slogan is yet another lie. I believe Ronan Mullin etc is entitled to his opinion but please don’t use the word nationalist or republican. I know he is an independent but the Fianna Fail old crowd are similar. You are willing to sacrifice your allegiance to the people of Ireland for that of Roman Catholicism.

I think the gobshites might be praying for some sort of divine intervention,

I learnt something new today. They pray in the Seanad. Nice. Is there any other country with prayers held in a parliament? Similarly, there are prayers in public-funded schools – a thing unheard of in rest of Europe. European Court of Human Rights has outlawed crucifixes in public schools. It’s now not only bigoted but simply illegal. This is very wrong and I wonder how many decades and sexual scandals are required to send religions in Ireland where they belong – to churches and private homes?

praying? and them robbing us and lieing through their teeth but sure they might be better to waste thrir hole day praying for all theire doing

Seriously?!

Ivanna Beateedee :(

Its progress in that it at least acknowledges that there exists a sizable number of us who do not adhere to catholic and christian beliefs, a number that is growing all the time. But religious and spiritual beliefs are private matters and should not intrude into the workings of a Parliament of a Republic.

I would also like to see the same approach taken in the Dail, a suggestion put forward by Labour’s Aodhan O’Riordain recently.

Silent reflection is as much bullshit as the prayers.

The Seanad, my synopsis, a brunch party circus playground comprising of washed up uneducated relics or never made the cut so called politicians or oiled / teflon skinned clowns (Callely comes to mind) given an expensive leather chair and a Dail basement soapbox to preach to us about controlling viable and necessary circus legislation that brought our country up to its waist in backhanders, brown envelopes and Bull****.
If they require 30 secs to reflect, they should reflect on their own justification, performance, their accountability , actual work completed and what it acheived and do a simple X by Y comparison of these metrics against the disgusting pay and allowances these useless shower receive. I work in an aggressive meritocratic business, If I don’t perform and I pay the price. Todays statement from the Seanad just empitomises how so far off the pulse of the irish people these clowns are. This is my second blog today .. I wont be commenting anymore because anger acheives nothing and these clowns will still claiming 50+ cent to the mile on expenses tomorrow.

One must have one’s reflection & prayers before commencing the order of ones business in the chambers! Why a session in chambers in the absence of the appropriate spiritual pre commencements is much like a bad merlot; heavy, dull & frightfully dreary.

Senator Bacik sees this move as a ‘step forward’ in making Ireland more tolerant. The next step would presumably see a complete removal of the prayer which would, ironically, be intolerant of the views, traditions and heritage of Christian members of the chamber. So, as usual, Ms. Bacik seems to want ‘tolerance’, but only on her terms.

The country is is crisis, half a million on the dole, and Labour Party worrying about 30 seconds of silence. I dont know whats worse, that 30 seconds of silence or it being given column inches!!! :-(

That’s exactly what they’re proposing!

The country was a better place when families, friends and workplaces got together to pray. The place has fallen apart since people have turned their back on spirituality. Maybe it’s time to start praying again as it costs nothing and gives so much back. Open your minds, hearts and souls.

Sounds like a very good inclusive compromise to me. Thumbs up for pluralism.