Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In a dramatic move at a Fine Gael dinner in October 2009, Enda Kenny, then in opposition, committed his party to abolishing Seanad Éireann if he became Taoiseach. He said: "I have come to the conclusion that a second house of the Oireachtas can no longer be justified". As far as I am aware the majority of the Fine Gael Senators were as surprised as I and my Fianna Fáil Seanad colleagues when the Taoiseach made that announcement.

The argument put forward by the Taoiseach to abolish our bicameral state is unjustified and was at the time desperate attempt to court public popularity. He emphasised that the abolition of the Seanad would save the public purse €25 million and would give a good hiding to what is perceived as the political elite in Seanad Éireann. The proposal was received with great excitement in the newspapers at the time. If the guillotine had been in use the public would have cut our heads off immediately.

I must remind everyone that I am honoured to have been elected to the Seanad three times and I have been here for 12 years. I wish to put on record, and I sure that the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, will agree with me that the Seanad did not cause our current economic crisis. However, there is no point in denying that the inability of the Dáil and the Seanad to hold the Government and the institutions of State accountable has been a weakness. Abolition of the Seanad will weaken rather than enhance accountability by removing the ability of Senators to contribute via Oireachtas committees and their contributions in the Chamber.

During the 12 years that I have been a Member of this House I have held public meetings at my own expense and produced two documents into child care. When Fianna Fáil was in government I helped secure the scheme to provide three years of free child care. I also produced a policy paper on a new approach to aging and ageism and one on suicide in the new Ireland. I have held public meetings at my own expense. For example, I hire halls and electronic printers and I spend thousands of pounds on printing documents.

I wish to put an important issue on the record. The Seanad has existed for 74 years having been established, as we all know, under the 1937 Constitution. Since then an enormous amount of brain power, time and energy has gone into producing 12 reports on the future of the Seanad. The last report was excellent and it was driven and delivered by Mary O'Rourke when she was a Senator and Leader of the Seanad.

I feel cross about the referendum of 1979 which dealt with the issue of university representation in Seanad Éireann. Along with the 12 reports that I referred to, in July 1979 the people voted in a referendum on the Seanad.

A referendum of the people took place to change how Senators representing the university seats are elected and it is a pity some of the aforementioned Senators are not present today to hear my comments. The purpose of the referendum was to broaden the scope of the franchise beyond Trinity College and NUI, comprising University College Dublin, University College Maynooth, University College Cork and University College Galway, to other institutes of higher education in the State. The seventh amendment to the Constitution was voted on positively by the people and of those who voted, 93% voted for change such that everyone who attended a third level college should be entitled to vote in the elections for the Seanad university seats. Tens of thousands of young Irish people who have graduated since 1979 have been deprived of the ability to vote to elect Members to the Seanad.

The current system to elect six university Senators is open to criticism on the basis that it confers a basic democratic right, namely, the right to vote, on a select group of people based solely on educational achievement. Over the past 30 years, successive Governments of all political hues, including Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, have failed to implement the seventh amendment to the Constitution to reform university representation and have failed to implement the recommendations in the 12 reports. The current arrangements exclude the vast majority of third level students and over the years, the six elected Senators of NUI and Trinity College, who have represented educational institutions, have shown hypocrisy in their failure to ensure that all other third-level bodies were included. Those who were in this House over that time have failed as they could have introduced it themselves. The people passed the amendment, all Members were obliged to do was to introduce the legislation but they failed to do so. The exclusion of graduates of the University of Limerick and the institutes of technology from voting in the Seanad elections constitutes elitism in its worst form and an apology should be given on behalf of Seanad Éireann to all young graduates who have missed the opportunity to take part in Irish politics at this level.