Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

"Oireachtas Report" offers a brief piece. I also acknowledge Mr. Tim Ryan who does a brief piece in the local paper in my constituency of Waterford. Other than that, members of the media have many questions to ask themselves in respect of the notice they give this House and the important workings that happen within it.

Reform of Seanad Éireann is the only way to give the House true credibility and connection with the electorate and to enhance its roles and functions in a fully functioning democratic State. The previous Seanad commissioned a report on Seanad reform and much work on a cross-party level went into the compilation of this report. Members looked at all previous reports. They invited many submissions from interested parties and made excellent recommendations on how the Seanad could become more relevant, democratic and connected, and how it could function with enhanced powers in the current era. I compliment the work of former Senator and Leader of the Seanad, Deputy Mary O'Rourke, former Senator and leader of the Fine Gael group, Deputy Brian Hayes, former Senator and deputy leader of the Seanad, John Dardis, and Senator Joe O'Toole, co-ordinator of the Independent group, who met on numerous occasions and considered all views while compiling this report.

There is an urgent need for the Oireachtas to consider Seanad reform. Only this week in Wexford the Minister, Deputy John Gormley, stated:

Seanad Éireann is something that I am going to reform. What we do need to look at and I think there is a motion next week in the Seanad, is to ensure that we have proper, democratic structures so that we have a franchise by the people that everyone can exercise and not just the chosen few.

The motion before the House certainly addresses the Minister's comments. It will be interesting to see how the Green Party Senators vote on this motion. It is obvious the leader of the Green Party has a clear view which seems to be in line with the thrust of the Independent group's motion before the House, namely, that Seanad reform is required urgently and that proper democratic structures are required to address all these issues. Under the current system of voting for university Senators, the graduates of Trinity College Dublin and NUI are the only graduates with a vote. Literally thousands of graduates from other universities and third level colleges and institutes of technology throughout this country are disenfranchised. My local institute is the Waterford Institute of Technology. A delegation of interested students from Waterford Institute of Technology travelled today to Seanad Éireann to hear this debate and I commend them on their interest. The graduates of such institutes are fully compliant with the framework of the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland. All its major awards, from higher certificate to ordinary degree, honours degree, masters and up to and including awards of doctorates are placed on this framework. This framework is the same for all institutes of technology and all universities. The framework is used across the European Union and its purpose it to ensure equality and recognition of all third level awards across Europe. It means that a degree in whatever discipline is worth the same respect and recognition whatever the awarding body, be it TCD or WIT.

It is unthinkable that 30 years after the passing of a constitutional amendment to allow legislative representation for all third level graduates, this measure remains undone. All our third level graduates should and must be treated the same. How can we hope to have any credibility in asking multinational companies to give equal respect to all our graduates if our Legislature fails to do the same? Is it not an admission that an award from outside a select few mature universities is worth less than those in the NUI and TCD? It is a startling hypocrisy that would not be allowed to stand in any other western democracy.

As politicians we often complain that young people are not engaging in politics. I am sure that I speak for every Member when I say that this is an issue that is always brought up when speaking to graduates. They want to engage and they want to participate in the democratic process, and Bunreacht na hÉireann was amended to allow it. I ask all sides of the House to support this motion which would allow this representation.

I refer to the Fine Gael policy which was announced today and which offers reform of both Houses of the Oireachtas. Fine Gael proposes that 20 of the 60 Senators be directly elected by the public, based on five Senators from each of the European Parliament constituencies, with these elections to take place every five years on the same date as local and European elections. It proposes that six Senators be elected by all graduates after each general election. If Fine Gael gets into power, whenever that may be, we hope to implement that policy.

I hope this motion will be adopted by the House and that progress can be made. For the sake of the credibility of Seanad Éireann, for the democracy we all represent, it would be a positive move and I commend the motion to the House.