End to councillors' Seanad election role urged

SEANAD REPORT: The powers enjoyed by councillors and interest groups to elect the majority of the Seanad are "quite meaningless" and should be ended, a major constitutional review has proposed.

The All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution yesterday recommended that the public should elect 48 senators out of 60 from a national list put forward by political parties and other organisations.

The committee also agreed that Northern Irish politicians should be allowed to speak in the Dáil on some Northern Ireland debates and on the operation of the Belfast Agreement.

The current electoral system made the Seanad "more remote from the public and weakens the overall sense of its democratic legitimacy" and gave councillors undue involvement, said the committee's seventh progress report.

The list system would ensure that any grouping getting more than 2 per cent of the national vote would gain a seat in the Upper House, said the committee's chairman, Fianna Fáil TD Mr Brian Lenihan.

Restrictions might have to be put in place to ensure that the lists were not abused by political parties to find new jobs for former "distinguished casualties" amongst TDs, he conceded.

The tradition of keeping seats for universities should be dropped after a fundamental reform of the upper chamber of the Oireachtas takes place, but not until then.

The university senators had made "an important contribution to national life" over the decades, but there was clearly "an anomaly" in giving greater representation to third-level graduates.

"There is no reason why the possession of a given qualification should entitle some citizens to a privileged role in the selection of members of our core democratic institutions," it said.

The All-Party Committee recommended that the number of TDs should not be cut,and that the qualifying age for the Dáil should fall from 21 to 18. It also recommended changes to the Taoiseach's 11 Seanad nominees.

The principle of such nominees was defensible because "the key test of a government ought to be, as it is now, whether it can command a majority" and it was reasonable that a government with a Dáil majority should be able to rely on one in the Seanad.

In future, however, the Taoiseach should keep four of the 11 seats for Northern Ireland residents, who should, in turn, proportionally represent the nationalist and unionist community.

Defending its cautious proposal on Northern Ireland representation, the All-Party Committee said the right of audience should be reserved for Westminster MPs and not for members of the Northern Assembly. The choice of the latter would "cut across the balance" laid down in the agreement which already has a variety of cross-Border bodies. "For that reason, we would prefer the involvement of MPs from Westminster, which is also a sister sovereign legislature."

It argued that that the Belfast Agreement had laid down "a delicate balance" that has not yet bedded down and which would be upset by more radical proposals. It rejected Sinn Féin's demand that all Westminster TDs elected in the North should automatically become members of the Dáil.

Such action would imply that the Republic refused to accept the agreement's balance, it suggested.

A decision on whether Northern Ireland residents should have the right to vote in presidential elections should be deferred until the agreement "has become more solidly entrenched".

Sinn Féin's demand that Northern residents should be able to vote in some constitutional referendums was also dismissed because each article of the Constitution had to be treated equally.

Emigrants should not be given the right to vote in Dáil and presidential elections or in referendums, even though the Republic's relationship with them "leaves ample cause for regret".

The committee suggests a constitutional change so that elections could be held over two days to help boost voter turnout. It also recommends that by- elections should be held within 120 days of a vacancy being created.