Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reduction in the number of Oireachtas Members required to nominate a presidential candidate arises from the proposal to abolish the Seanad, as well as the planned reduction in the number of Deputies after the next general election. The reduction proposed in the Bill will maintain the existing ratio between the overall number of Members and the number of nominations required to secure a presidential nomination.

The Bill deals solely with maintaining this existing ratio. It does not go beyond this, nor does it address issues such as the popular nomination of presidential candidates. To do so would be to go beyond what arises as a consequence of abolition of the Seanad. Accordingly, the Government cannot accept this amendment. However, it might be noted, first, that there were seven candidates on the last occasion, with the current system. Second, as mentioned by Deputy Ó Snodaigh and others in regard to popular nomination, we have a report from the Constitutional Convention that advocates a popular nomination process for presidential elections. That is a separate issue which the Government will consider in the near future in regard to whether it wishes to proceed on a number of signatures for the purposes of nominating a candidate from the citizens.

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