Sir, - The Seanad by election to fill the seat left vacant following the death of the late Liam Naughten will be conducted amongst an electorate of only Dail deputies and Senators. This by election will not allow, therefore, for a real debate on current issues nor on the function and future of the Upper House of our national legislature.
This is the first Seanad election since the publication of the Report of the Constitutional Review Group chaired by T.K. Whitaker, which recommended that an entire independent review of the role and function the Seanad be undertaken and I would endorse the suggestions regarding same made by Dr. Kathleen Lynch at Appendix 6 of that report.
The original function of the Seanad was to provide a voice for all of the vocational interests in Irish society. That has never really happened. Dr Lynch proposes that we should establish panels which really represent those interests. In one sense, the new national programme, Partnership 2000, acknowledges some of those vocational interests, in that it provides for four pillars in the Social Partnership employers, trade unions, farmers and the community and voluntary sector. I believe that sense of partnership should extend to the Seanad.
Currently, tens of thousands of Irish third level graduates (including those from the RTCs, DIT, DCU and UL) are denied a vote in Seanad graduate panel elections (where only NUI and Trinity graduates have voting rights), and this anomaly must be solved. But we must also address the broader question of who do Senators represent and, if we are to have a second chamber in our legislature, what function should it have? - Yours, etc.,
Education Officer,
Union of Students in Ireland,
1-2 Aston Place
Temple Bar,
Dublin 2.