Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome former Senator Mary Henry. I thank the esteemed members of the public who are and have been in the Visitors Gallery, many of whom have supported our work. I thank the Minister, Deputy Hogan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, for attending. I thank them for their reflective consideration of our Bill. It contains detailed proposals on reform and the transformation of Seanad Éireann. Senator Quinn and I are particularly grateful for the openness of the Government to our Bill and the willingness not to oppose it, thereby, we believe, supporting the fact that the alternative of a reformed Seanad should be in the minds of the people.

I thank the Leader of the Seanad, Senator Maurice Cummins, for his commitment to ensuring the possibility of a reformed Seanad. As he stated this evening, this Bill provides a suite of proposals that could be considered by the people before they cast their votes. He acknowledged the proposals of reform tabled by Senator Crown in this Bill. Together, both Bills can be used as a basis for reform. That is important for people to have heard as part of our debate this evening.

I wish to respond to one or two of the issues raised by the Minister in his speech. As we all said, this is not the time to tease out the detail of the Bill. The Minister referred to gender equality. Our principle in this Bill is exactly the same as that which underlies the Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Act. It is the principle that shapes our proposals. Gender quota mechanisms are offered as a way to correct the historic inequality between women and men in parliamentary democracies throughout the world. We are offering them as a possibility for the Houses of the Oireachtas. We believe this is constitutionally compliant. A similar mechanism is currently being used in our law in regard to inside and outside panels.

We need to consider whether we should use the mechanism of gender quotas to correct the inequality of history, and our proposal is that we should. It is worthy of debate. We hope that Irish lawmakers, in the context of that debate, will choose an effective way to ensure gender equality.

The Minister and other Senators referred to the practicalities of opening up the vote to so many. Yes, we must consider these issues and hopefully we will have the opportunity to do that when discussing amendments to the Bill. The question for our lawmakers is the principle of whether we are in favour of opening the franchise to the diaspora. Then we can examine the practical considerations.

The Minister also said that the Constitutional Convention is considering the Dáil electoral system. Other Senators mentioned the fact that, unfortunately, the Government has not allowed the issue of Seanad reform, retention or abolition to be part of the convention's work. Senator Quinn and I and others have put forward a submission to the convention that it ought to consider the Seanad as part of its agenda. The chair of the convention has said that he will put that proposal to the members the next time they meet.

I thank Senators for their reflective words, criticisms and suggestions. We hope these can be teased out on Committee Stage. Senator Quinn and I also wish to thank those who worked so diligently with us to produce the Bill. Others have already mentioned some of their names, but I also thank Brian Hunt, Darren Lehane, Michael McDowell, Noel Whelan, Joe O'Toole, Brian Murphy and Suzanne Egan. In conclusion, we hope that the image of the reformed Seanad, Seanad an Phobail, remains a key informant of the reform agenda in the forthcoming debate and remains in the minds of our people as they consider the limited choice of reform or abolition in the referendum.