Sir, – The Seanad received formal notification on January 23rd this year of the resignation of David Norris, but since then nothing has been done, and it is now reported that nothing will be done for a further 10 months (“David Norris’s Seanad seat unlikely to be filled before general election”, News, July 17th).
In November 2010, the High Court ruled that the failure by the State to hold a byelection for a vacancy in the Dáil “offends the terms and spirit of the Constitution and its framework for democratic representation”.
In taking that case, then-senator Pearse Doherty of Sinn Féin asked the court, as an elector, to make a declaration that there had been an excessive delay in filling the Dáil vacancy in Donegal South West since June 2009.
In June 2020, the High Court ruled, in a case taken by then-senator Ivana Bacik of the Labour Party, that Seanad Éireann “must be comprised of sixty members, eleven of whom are nominated and forty-nine of whom are elected.”
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The suggestion now that one of the Houses of the Oireachtas would be missing one of its members for more than 12 months would surely run contrary to both the Doherty and Bacik High Court rulings.
While I’m sure it will be argued that one senator does not equal one TD, the evidence shows that an Independent senator from the so-called university constituencies is far more effective in their role as a national legislator than a backbench government TD.
By failing to move a writ for a Seanad byelection, the Oireachtas is failing to meet its constitutional obligations and is failing the people of Ireland who are entitled to have both Houses of the Oireachtas fully constituted at all times, as far as possible.
Any continued failure by the Oireachtas to hold a byelection could easily result in legal proceedings being issued on the matter by any citizen who felt they are not being fully represented in our national parliament.
While the courts would be highly unlikely to ever order the Oireachtas to move a writ for a byelection, the courts have shown that they may make a declaration that there has been an inordinate delay in holding a byelection and that the Oireachtas has failed in its constitutional obligations and has violated the rights of citizens to full representation in the Oireachtas.
The practical question for the Oireachtas now is whether such legal proceedings will cost the State more than the €500,000 estimated cost for a Seanad byelection.
David Norris served Ireland extremely well over the many decades he sat in the Seanad. A new, independent, voice should now be given the opportunity to serve the people in the Seanad and uphold the Constitution of Ireland in its entirety. – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS HENEGHAN,
East Wall,
Dublin 3.