Referendums on confidentiality and emigrant voting rights deferred

THE Government is not to proceed with its two promised referendums on granting voting rights to emigrants in elections to the Seanad and on relaxing the rule on Cabinet confidentiality.

The decision not to proceed with the votes for emigrants poll was announced yesterday. An announcement on the decision to cancel the Cabinet confidentiality referendum is being withheld until next week.

Senior sources confirmed yesterday that the two referendums, promised in the Coalition's Programme for Government, ar most unlikely to be held during the Government's remaining term of office. The issues are to be referred to the Constitution Review Group.

The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, had given an outline of the sort of, changes proposed to relax the rule on Cabinet confidentiality in the Dail last year. That rule was given explicit expression in a High Court case during the beef tribunal when it was determined that Minister were obliged to maintain the confidentiality of Cabinet discussions.

It is understood the Government was originally proposing shortly after it came into office, to qualify that obligation in the public interest.

The Attorney General's Office is believed to have advised recently that the issue was so complex that it required further consideration. Some Ministers, also argued that constitutional change may be unnecessary.

Announcing the decision not to proceed with the proposal for the election of three members of the Seanad by Irish emigrants, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, said five emigrant groups expressed varying degrees of opposition to it, even as a first step towards full voting rights.

Of the 39 other organisations and individuals who commented on the proposals, eight were fully supportive and the remainder were either opposed to them or indicated reluctant acceptance.

Mr Howlin also recalled that in the Seanad widely different views were expressed on the proposals. The Dail's Select Committee on Finance and General Affairs, while endorsing the principle of Seanad representation for emigrants, proposed that the six university seats be abolished and the number of emigrants seats increased to at least five.

The Minister said that it would be open to the All Party Committee on the Constitution, in the context of its review of the role of the Seanad, to consider the rationale for and the relative merits of university and emigrant representation, having regard in particular to the views of the Constitutions Review Group and the wider, issue of Seanad reform.

The spokesman for Glorna Deorai, the group campaigning for emigrant voting rights, said that once again the Government had been disingenuous in its assessment of the issue. It did not want Seanad seats for the Irish abroad, he said, but full voting rights in Dail elections.