Madam, – Contrary to the claim by Marian Harkin MEP (Home News, March 5th), the election of Independents to the Senate has not been limited to the university panels. Although no Independent candidate has been elected from the vocational panels since 1977, there are a number of precedents.
Perhaps the most successful of these was Seán Brosnahan, former general secretary of the INTO, who was elected from the Labour panel on four consecutive occasions from 1961 to 1977.
Brosnahan, however, is one of barely more than a handful of such independent “vocational” senators. Given the positive contribution made by Independent university senators in the upper house over the years, the absence of Independent vocational senators may well be one reason why the Seanad has failed as a house of review.
It is another issue for the new government to consider in its plans for political reform. – Yours, etc,