Madam, – Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the approval by the people of Ireland of measures to allow voting rights for six of the seats for Seanad Éireann to be reformed and their electorate extend beyond the then existing third-level institutions.
After all these many decades the provision of voting rights for those third level graduates from outside the NUI and TCD as approved by the people has still not come to pass.
You have yourself editorialised about this issue on a number of occasions.
There are close to 400,000 Irish citizens who should have voting rights but don’t simply due to government inaction over the last 30 years.
This is more than twice the number of the current electorate for both the TCD and the National University of Ireland panels combined. According to recent CSO figures there are 527,775 adults in the state with a degree or higher yet only about 150,000 are on the combined registers for the NUI and TCD. This means less than 30 per cent of those envisaged by the constitution as amended in 1979 are able to vote for the Seanad. A number of third-level colleges have even lost their voting rights since 1979 including the national teacher training colleges at St Pat’s, Drumcondra and Mary Immaculate, Limerick.
Is this the biggest problem facing the nation? No. Yet if it takes us 30 years to do the straightforward what hope is there for solutions for the big problems? Moreover, movement on this issue would also serve as an intermediate step to widening the franchise for the Seanad elections eventually lead to all citizens having a vote for a reformed Seanad.
However, it appears that there is stalling by the leader of the Seanad Senator Donie Cassidy (FF) in extending voting rights . When the Minister for the Environment John Gormley announced on March 11th last that the cross-party group which he chairs would meet for one last time before proceeding with reforms, it was anticipated that full co-operation with all parties would lead to speedy progress being made. The group has indeed met but it appears that one group is still outstanding with their contribution. The FF group is the only one for which confirmation of having completed and returned their submission is not available.
The last report on Seanad reform was chaired by Senator Mary O’Rourke of Fianna Fáil so it doesn’t appear this delay is an official stance by either Fianna Fáil or the Government, both of whom have repeatedly stated that they are in favour of this reform proceeding as soon as possible.
In recent discussions with the Minister’s representative I’ve been assured that the timetable of seeking to legislate by the end of the year still applies.
So the question we must ask is why is Senator Cassidy, himself a noted impresario, holding up the whole show? – Yours, etc,