Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In particular I would have liked Senator Barrett to be here. On Thursday, 5 July 1979, the Irish people voted in a referendum to support a Bill to broaden the electorate for the university seats beyond Trinity College Dublin, and the NUI, incorporating UCD, Maynooth, UCC and UCG, to the graduates of other institutions of higher education in the State such as the equivalent of today's University of Limerick, Dublin City University and the institutes of technology. Over half a million people voted in favour of this amendment to the Constitution, with only 45,000 voting against it. As the proposal was duly approved by the people of Ireland, it was signed by the President in August 1979 and promulgated as a law.

Over the past 34 years since the 1979 referendum, Governments of all political hues, including our own Fianna Fáil governments, have failed to pass the regulations to implement the legislation providing for the extension of the university electorate beyond the current universities. Those Governments should apologise to the tens of thousands of third level graduates who were let down by their failure to implement the amendment passed in thereferendum in 1979 that they would be entitled to vote. It is a total failure. What does this say about the political will over the years to implement a straightforward modification of the Seanad electorate agreed by the people?

What is equally shocking is that the six elected Senators of NUI and Trinity College, who are generally most articulate and radical in their contributions, seem to have a vow of silence when it comes to implementing the one change in the Seanad the Irish people voted-----