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A REPORT ON reform of the Seanad has recommended that half of its members be elected by universal suffrage with all Irish passport holders, including emigrants and residents in Northern Ireland, being entitled to vote.
The report of the Seanad Working Group on Reform contains radical proposals to overhaul the house, which the group says could be law by the end of the year.
The working group was established by the Taoiseach in the wake of the defeat of the referendum to abolish the upper house in October 2013.
In a statement today, Enda Kenny said of the report:
It is innovative and radical, and contains some far-reaching recommendations to the way members are elected to the Seanad, and on how the Seanad should perform its functions.
He said there now needed to be “public and political discussion and consultation” on the proposals. Kenny said he intends to consult with opposition party leaders and request that the working group make a presentation to two relevant Oireachtas committees.
The group was tasked with looking at the ways in which the current Seanad set up could be reformed within the confines of the Constitution.
Under its proposals, the group recommends that the majority of seats on the five vocational panels that currently exist should be elected by popular vote.
Currently 43 senators are elected by councillors, TDs and Senators. Under the reform proposals, 30 seats would be filled by a popular vote and elected politicians would fill 13 seats.
The group has endorsed proposals to widen the electorate for the six university seats to graduates of all third-level institutions, a reform already proposed by the government.
Currently, only graduates of Trinity College Dublin and National Universities of Ireland can vote for these seats.
The Taoiseach’s 11 nominees to the upper house would remain as they are constitutionally enshrined.
In conjunction with the UCD National Cyber Security Centre, the working group has proposed a secure system to register voters where people would be able to download and send in their voter registration form.
The principal of one person, one vote would mean that the 150,000 graduates from Trinity and NUI who currently have a vote in the Seanad would have to opt to either retain that vote or become part of the electorate for the popular vote.
A draft bill to implement the proposals is currently being finalised and will be published within the next three weeks, according to one of the working group’s members.
The working group said that its reforms could be published and passed through the Dáíl and Seanad before the summer recess and signed into law before the end of the year.
The reforms would not come into effect until the Seanad election after the next one, which is due to take place in the weeks after the next general election.
The working group was chaired by academic and former Fine Gael TD and Senator Dr Maurice Manning.
It also included the academic and journalist Elaine Byrne; former minister Mary O’Rourke; former senators Joe O’Toole, Maurice Hayes and Pat Magner; political scientist Mary C. Murphy; and the former chair of the Constitutional Convention Tom Arnold.
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I have to say I am surprised by the quality of these proposed reforms. Should something close to this be implemented I think we did ourselves a favour as a nation by not abolishing the Seannad.
I always thought we should have held the seanad referendum again. I don’t think people understood the issues the first time. Maybe we could have had the right result second time around.
We got the right result the first time Mr. Fantastic the Seanad is possibly the only place a government can be held to account. They just need some more powers to hold the government and its ministers to account.
But it won’t be. I’m only in politics 10 years and I’ve seen 6-7 such proposals, people get excited about it then they’re forgotten about
What we did was maintain the status quo with that vote – nothing more – reform was not on the ballot.
There have been literally 100s of reform proposals – everyones ideas contradict everyone elses so senate reform is a mirage. This govt ignored all the great ideas that came out of the convention and what did they put forth ?
-An SSM referendum that was coming anyway
-A stupid age change for the Presidency that does not have a hope of passing
The convention should tell you how seriously they take this – it wont happen
Kerry I don’t know how u can say it’s the only thing to hold a govt to account when it’s never ONCE actually done that – the water referendum proposal was a case in point, everyone wanted a referendum but the senate rubber stamped it
Face it – there is a grand canyon gap between reality and theory with how the Senate works
All of its members should be elected by the people. It should be kept separate and free from any Dail influence and free to vote on issues to benifit the people.
err ..isnt that what the Dail is supposed to do; Benefit the people? More wasted resources in the potato republic
Sarcasm is a often misunderstood form of wit.
Being held to account by anyone who holds an Irish passport and doesn’t live or pay their taxes here sounds crazy. Some of these passport holders have never even been to Ireland and have them due to their Irish grandparents.
agreed Chris – there is no way someone that does not have to live with the consequences of their vote should be allowed a say. Give the vote to all people living in the Republic for the previous 12 months only. What business is it of the North whom is elected in the Senate of the South… we do get a vote for the House of Lords.
I would say they sound VERY sensible not VERY radical. Headline sensationalism
Sensibility in governance is pretty radical in all fairness Kevin.
The sense was forced upon them when we voted to keep it, now watch how slow it takes for these reforms to come in if ever.
I would prefer if all Senators be elected like T.D.s on polling day not just appointed.
What difference would that make? You essentially just want to have more TD’s and move them into a different room(the seanad) in leinster house? A pointless expensive exercise.
Right there is an example of why senate reform can’t work – one of many reasons – everyones idea of a good reformed senate contradicts everyone elses idea.
They’re coming up with this for the election so they can BS you again like they did with free college fees and a stimulus in 2011 – it’s just hot air it’s never going to happen.
Politicians LOVE that even if they loose their Dail election they can still get a seat in parliament and the salery an expenses anyway, you seriously think they’ll voluntarily give that up when it’s not even a game changing issue for the elections? Not a chance – I’m not saying I’d not like to see one (second choice after abolition) but realistically it’s not going to happen
I remember trying to say this during the campaign and nobody wanted to hear it – yet here we are all that time later and not only has there been no reform but we’ve had an exmaple – the water services bill- where the Senate was asked to be a check/balance with a referendum petition and would not do it! What’s it going to take for people to wake up?
Why? We will be electing 158 TDs so why would we elect a second group of parliamentarians on the same day?
If the two groups disagreed, whose views would prevail?
Both would claim a democratic mandate. That might make some sense in a federation like the US or Australia where the Senate is a protection for the smaller states but why would you have it in a small unitary state like Ireland?
One Dail consisting of the People’s representatives is enough.
Nobody should call themselves a politician if they arent voted in by the electorate. Should have been done away with and would have been if Clown Kenny didnt balls up the referendum.
Lorraine Higgins failed 4 consecutive elections over 5 years with massive labour party funding and still she gets her seanad salary and pension!
Phew! the bang of mary-jane coming from Kevin’s comments is dizzying.
It’s a good start but more radical overhaul of the executive and legislature is needed!
Let us have another go at scrapping it, I’d guess the vote would radically change.
The one and only thing enda got right.
Should have told these fatcats to p@ss off.
A working group consisting of former minister Mary O’Rourke. Her ideas on the matter would be as fresh as a stale fart.
Well done Hugh on covering another excellent achievement by this government.
Politicians electing politicians…a shiver runs down my spine
Hugh has his eye on being one of Kennys 11 stooges after the next Seanad Election.
Hugh is the only unbiased journalist here.
“Journalist” – please use the correct term.
Another troll who picked the first image of Google images. Lads, do you need training on how to be a government troll?
@Gearoid I actually think he’s an anti government troll. Works too!
The seanad should be a-political (filled with people who have no affiliation to any party). Otherwise it fails to meet its purpose which is to debate and highlight legislation the government proposes.
So only allow independents?
That will probably happen as a consequence of these reforms, if they happen.
Approx 75% of elected candidates would come from nominations of independent bodies (not political parties) under the details of these reforms. And if current experience with the university seats is anything to go by, independents tend to do will in popular elections to the Seanad.
The proposals are reasonable and go are far as possible without having a constitutional referendum. However they are meaningless unless the Seanad is given more powers.
- which it never will be.
No govt – no power structure is going to voluntarily hand over a barrier to it’s own power.
Second chambers can only be a rubber stamp like ours or a source of gridlock like the US- neither is good
The Seanad is a disgustingly elitist house at the moment, where only those who graduated from a university gets a vote
These new recommended ammendments should be welcomed imo
We needed total reform in Irish government full stop .. It’s like a gravy train nothing more total reform
More lipstick and rouge politics. The Seanad needs to be filled with people of conscience, not un-electable party luvvies.
Dunno. I don’t like the idea of all third level graduates voting. Whether people like to admit it or not, there is a huge intellectual divide between graduates of our top universities and graduates of some of our lesser institutions. The purpose of a university constituency is to ensure that intellectual considerations at least have a chance when relatively smart people are given a chance to directly elect their own representatives. It’s not a universal truth, but is a good proxy nonetheless. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the output of some of the lesser educational establishments in the country, thus rendering this idea pointless. It’s a pity, because the university constituency has produced some diverse senators who would otherwise never have been elected by a wider electorate.
The horror of allowing those who only got their degrees in the likes of ITTallaght or even those who don’t have a third level education to vote in a democratic election?!?!
My god, what have we, as a society, become?
Of course Daisy, you chose to completely miss the point, thereby proving the point.
Troll harder, faux poshboy!
It’s only 3 seats out of 60. The University voting debate sounds almost like NUI grads are filling the thing up.
Who’s trolling Mrs Chainsaw? Any chance you’d actually be bothered (or capable for that matter) of addressing my point? Always easier to demean and ridicule, isn’t it? Except all it does is highlight your own weaknesses.
Surely the money used for this proposal could help extract water charges from our budget?
The money wasted on the Senate should have been in the first place!
The only change to this I personal would want (I would voted this in as is because it better than we have currently have) is that all appointed by the Taoiseach must have a LAW degree, ideally a masters or higher. Just from the point of view to have a group of people that can read bills coming up from the Dail and point out legal mistakes so they don’t get any higher. I know Mary McAleese refuse to sign some bills in her time because they where illegal or had huge loop holes and sent the back to be reworked / fixed but it would be much cheaper for the state if it could have happened earlier on aka at the Seanad. Also hopefully limit the number of “mates” that can get these seats. (that really secondary thing)
They could have reformed it by binning it when we had the chance. Over-paid, unelected, has-been politicians.
They are elected. There are different ways of being elected you know. Or more probably, you don’t.
Elected by whom? Where was my polling card Fred? A bunch of ra-ra’s from trinity and other select corner’s do not represent the nation.
No power just jobs for the boys
Who said they had to be elected by the nation to represent the nation? Does the Taoiseach have to be elected by every voter in the State or just those in the Dail? The senators were indeed elected, but you’re simply bitter because you’re not one of those who do the electing. There are reasons for this you see. Or again, you probably don’t.
Im sure there are but id rather have a vote on senators regardless but carry on with your half baked attempt at explaining the democratic process in this country. Im sure someone will take you seriously if you post enough.
Unless all those in the Seanad are elected by the people and the people only there is no reform just change the constitution …simple Being as the people pay the wages we should elect all
Definitely something to be said for introducing one aspect on the ancient greek democracy and have an opt in and a lottery. It means anybody who wants to be a senator has a fair chance and should result in a wider range of views and opinions. If you are drawn, you have to do it as your civic duty. Even if you are already a sitting politician. Dissentive for any potential T.D’s to put their name in the hat.
So instead of election by college graduates and private appointment, we will get candidates elected by the whole world and its mother. Genius! Makes perfect sense for Irish democracy. I’m certain non-nationals have a stake in Irish politics, sure ain’t it clear they benefit thus.
have your say