Seanad Report: The need for Trinity College Dublin to have special representation in the House was no longer valid, Mr John Hanafin (FF) said.
At the time of the establishment of the Universities Panel it had been thought appropriate to allocate three seats to the Dublin university.
However, that time and that need had gone. There should be one universities panel nowadays which would have an electorate of all third-level graduates.
Contributing to the debate on Seanad reform, Mr Hanafin strongly urged that the membership of the House be raised from the current level of 60 to 80 "at a minimum."
In the past, when the Dáil had had 120 members, the Seanad had had 60. But the Dáil total now stood at 166, while the Seanad membership had remained unchanged.
Former presidents and taoisigh should have an automatic right to sit in the Seanad and to contribute to its proceedings.
Mr Shane Ross (Ind) said that while there must be reform in regard to the university membership, with the franchise extended to all universities and to everyone holding degrees, "on the other hand, we don't want to be the kind of soft target in the reform of the Seanad when it comes."
There must be an overall reform package, so that the university seats were not the only target for reform.
The independence of the university seats must not be lost by changing the constituency around too much.
He believed that there was a real danger that political parties would succumb to the temptation to take over the university seats by using their powerful political machines.
The eventual result could be that there would be no independent members elected to the Seanad.