Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 6, inclusive, together.

The Deputies may recall that I met the leaders of the different parties and groupings in the Dáil and the Seanad in December 2013 to discuss how best to proceed with reform of the Seanad. Following this, in February 2014 the Government presented a package of proposals on Seanad reform to the Leader of the Seanad for submission to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges of the Seanad.

In addition, in February 2014 the general scheme of the Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill was published for consultation. The purpose of the Bill is to enable implementation of the 1979 constitutional amendment to extend the Seanad franchise to graduates from institutions of higher education in the State that do not currently form part of the Seanad university constituencies. This Bill is due for publication in 2016. More recently, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government published the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2015, whose purpose is to amend the Seanad electoral Acts inn regard to nominations for panel member elections and candidate election posts for university member elections and to amend the Electoral Act 1992 in regard to the supplement to the register of electors.

In order to further progress the Seanad reform process, I established an independent working group in December 2014 with a focus on possible reforms of the Seanad electoral reform system within existing constitutional parameters as well as on exploring ways of reforming Seanad Éireann generally and the manner in which it carries out its business. The working group published its report on 13 April last and it is available on my Department's website. The associated draft Bill and explanatory memorandum prepared for the group were also published on my Department's website on 14 May.

I issued a statement when the report was published in which I welcomed it and described it as being innovative and radical and as containing some far-reaching recommendations about how Members are elected to the Seanad and on how it should perform its functions. I indicated there needed to be a public and political discussion and consultation on the report. To that end, I requested that the working group make a presentation to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht and to the Committee on Procedure and Privileges of the Seanad. On 5 May last and again on 8 July, statements on the report were made in the Seanad with the chairman of the working group and former Senator Joe O'Toole, a member of the group, in attendance.

I also said that I intended to meet Opposition party leaders to discuss the report's contents and this meeting took place in July. Arising from that meeting, I gave a commitment to have a debate in Dáil Éireann on the working group's report and it is my intention that this will take place before the end of this session. The report recommended that the commencement date for the new arrangements, were they to be accepted, should be immediately following the next Seanad general election.

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