Sir, – Throughout the October 2022 Supreme Court hearing of my legal challenge to the current legislation on the Seanad franchise – and during the subsequent hearing in July 2023 – one consistent point was repeatedly made by the Attorney General and his representatives: the Government can’t force TDs to vote for specific legislation on Seanad electoral reform.
And yet we are told now that 18 months after the court told the Government the system it had actively defended is unconstitutional, the Government will have legislation passed that will extend the vote in Seanad elections to more college graduates (“Exclusive Seanad voting rights for TCD and NUI graduates to be scrapped”, News, September 10th).
TDs should think very carefully about voting for a Bill in the Dáil which will continue to disenfranchise the majority of people in Ireland and instead place the right to vote in parliamentary elections with college graduates – and councillors, TDs, and senators – alone.
I’m not sure that “You need a degree to vote” is the argument TDs wish to be making to their constituents during the upcoming general election, particularly to those without college degrees.
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The alternative to this is to extend the vote in Seanad elections to everyone, regardless of educational qualifications. This was endorsed in the 2013 referendum on the Seanad, the government-sponsored 2015 Manning report, and the 2018 report of the all-party Seanad Reform Implementation Group. The Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, himself argued for this in the Dáil in 2014.
A smart TD would back reform that extends the right to vote in Seanad elections to all, rather than the one being proposed by the Government. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS HENEGHAN,
East Wall,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – The Supreme Court ruling on the seventh amendment has put a welcome end to the Government’s long drawn out stalling and blocking of Seanad reform. However, it is clear the Government still trying to do as little as possible.
The proposal sent to Cabinet is flawed and limited, with a minimalist approach which falls far short of the spirit of the 1979 and 2013 referendums where people gave a clear mandate for a more open and democratic Seanad. Most notably, it does not deliver universal franchise. It merely widens the pool of graduates entitled to vote on the six university seats but does not give the wider public any right to vote on the 43 panel seats.
We need real reform of the kind set out in the Seanad Bill 2020, drafted by myself, Senator Michael McDowell and other members of the cross-party Seanad Reform Implementation Group. Our Seanad Bill 2020 charts a progressive path to Seanad reform giving every adult citizen the right to vote in Seanad elections while also fully meeting the requirements of last year’s Supreme Court ruling.
The debates and decisions within the Seanad affect everyone, and everyone should have a say in electing its members. – Yours, etc,
Senator ALICE-MARY HIGGINS,
National University of Ireland Panel,
Seanad Éireann,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2.
Sir, – The latest proposal to scrap the Trinity and NUI panels in the Seanad and to replace them with a single graduate panel is indicative of all the worst aspects of what has come to be known as an Irish solution for an Irish problem. Even if this proposal is implemented, there will still be people with multiple votes in all Seanad elections.
The Seanad will not be an effective body until all citizens have a single vote which they can cast on the same day as the general election for Dáil Éireann. Until that happens, the Seanad, with a few notable exceptions, will remain a retirement home for politicians or a convalescent home for those who hope to recover enough energy to fight another day. – Yours, etc,
LOUIS O’FLAHERTY,
Santry,
Dublin 9.
A chara, – Extending the franchise for the University of Dublin and NUI panels to all graduates simply makes a highly undemocratic constituency slightly less undemocratic.
Until the Seanad franchise as a whole is extended to every citizen, regardless of education, it will continue to be repugnant to the republican ideals upon which this State claims to be founded. – Is mise,
CIARÁN McMAHON,
Stackallen,
Co Meath.
A chara, – British comedian Jay Foreman once remarked that the Labour Party’s reforms to the House of Lords in 1999 brought parliament “kicking and screaming into the 19th century”.
I note from your article “Seanad voting rights for TCD and NUI graduates to be scrapped” that the recent Seanad reforms were first suggested in 1979. So at last, 45 years later, our own Oireachtas has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century.
I look forward to the year 2069, when it will finally enter the 21st. – Is mise,
BRÍAN Ó SÚILLEABHÁIN,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – Contrary to your headline, Article 17 of the Constitution currently limits the Seanad franchise to graduates of the NUI and of the University of Dublin, rather than of “TCD”. The distinction is important.
Reform of the Seanad universities constituencies was enabled as long ago as July 1979 by the referendum which approved the seventh amendment to the Constitution. For decades the Oireachtas failed to act on this. It has taken a recent Supreme Court ruling to mandate reform.
The anticipated legislation will finally address one great unfairness. It should not perpetuate another, the anomaly that an Irish citizen who holds degrees from each of the currently recognised institutions – say a BA awarded by the NUI, and a PhD from the University of Dublin – can exercise votes in the two Seanad university constituencies. An ancillary problem arises where a person holds degrees from different institutions under different names, usually as a result of marriage. A unitary graduate electoral register will have to address all such issues, to ensure rigorous application of the principle of one graduate/one vote in the new higher education constituency. – Yours, etc,
EUNAN O’HALPIN, MRIA, FTCD
Professor Emeritus of Contemporary Irish History,
Trinity Centre for Contemporary Irish History,
Trinity College,
Dublin 2.