Among several pieces of legislation hastily passed last week in advance of next week’s dissolution of the Dáil, it would have been easy to miss the Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill which extends the franchise for the six university seats in the upper house to graduates of all third-level institutions in the State.
That means the end of the two existing three-seat constituencies, for National University of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin graduates respectively, and the creation of a new six-seat Higher Education constituency. The electorate for the six seats will increase by hundreds of thousands, all of them entitled to a postal vote when the new arrangements come into effect for the election after next.
At first glance, this might seem a modest democratising reform, as well as a long overdue recognition of the will of the people expressed 45 years ago in a 1979 referendum. In truth, though, it was only after decades of procrastination that the political establishment was forced into action following a successful legal challenge by DCU graduate Tomás Heneghan.
In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the existing provisions were unconstitutional. The timeframe it set for redressing the problem made it imperative to pass the bill before the end of the current Dáil. The Government chose to take a minimalist approach, ignoring the many sensible proposals that have been produced over the years for reform of how the Seanad is elected. The 2018 Manning report, in particular, laid out a range of proposals which have been warmly commended and resolutely ignored. As a result, the new legislation only points up the shortcomings of the State’s current electoral arrangements.
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For example, Ireland lags well behind peer countries when it comes to making voting easier for those who, for whatever reason, cannot physically attend their local polling station on election day. Postal voting in Dáil elections remains highly limited for no good reason other than institutional inertia. Contrast that with the postal voting arrangements which will now be put in place for well over a million graduates to elect six senators. This absurd imbalance of resources and priorities is a direct consequence of the bad faith shown by successive generations of political leaders on Seanad reform.
This is not an issue likely to exercise voters when the general election comes. But in an era of declining trust in public institutions and faltering faith in the democratic process, those charged with safeguarding the health of that process should take their responsibilities more seriously. It is widely accepted that the Seanad’s current electoral system is an anachronism. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that it suits the interests of no one except the main parties to keep it that way.