Had it been approved, the Seanad would have ceased to exist after the following Irish general election, leaving Dáil Éireann as the sole house of the Oireachtas.

In August 2013, a pro-Seanad advocate alleged that Kenny's change was spurred by a "secret report" from party advisers; Fine Gael responded that the document in question had been published in March 2010.

[8] In the 2011 election campaign, Labour and Sinn Féin also promised to abolish the Seanad,[9][10] while Fianna Fáil supported a referendum on the issue.

[12] Fine Gael's 2011 election manifesto pledged to have a referendum to abolish the Seanad within 12 months of taking office; as Taoiseach in 2012, Enda Kenny attributed the delay in introducing the bill to the complexity of the changes required.

[2][16] The government also promised changes to the structure of Oireachtas committees and standing orders for discussing bills, additional to those necessitated by Seanad abolition.

Some changes were less mechanical:[23] Arguments in favour of the bill included: that abolition would save money; that the number of legislators is too large relative to the state's population; that the method of selection is elitist and undemocratic; and that the Seanad is a powerless rubber-stamp.

[32][33] Opponents alleged that the participation of its head, Kieran Mulvey, compromised his professional position as chairman of the Labour Relations Commission.

[35] The Fine Gael campaign claimed that the annual net saving to taxpayers of abolishing the Seanad would be €20m, a figure disputed by opponents.

[36] The Referendum Commission wrote to the Oireachtas finance officer, who put the annual cost of the Seanad at €8.8m in pay and expenses for Senators and their personal staff; €9.3m in support and infrastructure; and €2m in pensions.

[39] On 25 September 2013 the Reform Alliance, of Oireachtas members expelled from Fine Gael for opposing the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, called for a No-vote.

[45][46][47] Several former Taoiseach-nominated senators from Northern Ireland endorsed the opportunity the Seanad provided for cross-border input to the state's politics.

[48] Several TDs from the governing Labour Party, including its chief whip Emmet Stagg, said that they would vote against abolition in the referendum, while supporting the bill in the Oireachtas.

[54] Both columnists characterised the government's putative reform of Dáil procedures as a charade to disguise a migration of power from the legislature to the cabinet and the Economic Management Council.

[53][54] The Referendum Commission was established by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government on 6 June 2012, with High Court judge Elizabeth Dunne as chair.

[56] The earlier establishment in this case was in response to complaints that previous referendum campaigns had been too short to enable the electorate to form a considered opinion.

In the event of the bill's receiving majority approval in the referendum, this team would have remained in place to plan consequent changes to statute law to remove from it all references to the Seanad.

[59] David Norris stated in the Seanad, "I object in the strongest possible way to the idea that someone who has spent years in the House should have to listen to the Regina monologue from someone who has not been a wet weekend in the Oireachtas and is talking through her fanny.

[63][65][66] A petition to recall the Dáil was unsuccessful, and Fine Gael accused Daly of an expensive and ineffectual publicity stunt relating to the Seanad abolition campaign.