Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House for this afternoon's motion. I stand here to propose that this House should be reformed according to two principles that are cornerstones of any genuine democracy, and that this House should be reformed with a sense of urgency by the immediate establishment of an all-party task force so we can have meaningful reform in advance of the next Seanad general election.

Some of the criticisms levelled at the Seanad during the last referendum campaign are unfounded and untrue but it remains beyond dispute that this House is not democratic or as effective as it could be, and the Seanad electoral system is elitist. So what is the Government willing to offer the people now they have spoken? We can look at the public record. On 18 December, the Taoiseach ruled out proposals that would have given every citizen a vote in Seanad elections, doing so on the basis that he did not "believe that the framers of the Constitution intended that you'd have a universal suffrage for the Senate in the same way as the Dáil". I will rebut this declaration in a few moments.

The other issue on public record is the Government's amendment to the motion, which effectively places on public record the minutes of the meeting that the Taoiseach had with political party leaders last December. The Government's offer to the people is as little reform as possible, as slowly as possible and with no sense of urgency and certainly no reform in time for the next Seanad general election to provide the people with what they are entitled to in a democracy, which is one person, one vote, and universal suffrage. What the Government offers the people this evening is simply the minutes of a meeting that happened over six weeks ago. The Government should stop underestimating the people. Our motion does not underestimate the people, and it reflects the growing consensus across Independents, the Opposition parties and some individual members of the Government and relevant civil society groups that the bottom line requirement for the next Seanad is that every person should have a vote and the franchise should be extended universally.

It reflects the primary elements of my Bill with Senator Quinn, Senator Crown's Bill, the recently published Fianna Fáil Bill and proposals from Sinn Féin. Our motion is framed with cognisance of the Constitution. Article 6 of the Constitution acknowledges that it is the “right” of the people to “designate the rulers of the State”. It is the right of the people to choose who governs them and who makes the laws in their democracy. Article 18 of the Constitution clearly does not exclude universal citizen suffrage in Seanad elections. It does the exact opposite. The Constitution simply provides that general elections to the Seanad “shall be held on the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote” and that the law shall regulate those elections, not the Constitution.

The Taoiseach’s claim that the Constitution must remain rooted in the political convictions of the 1930s and cannot be reinterpreted to fit modern needs is not only archaic, it disregards a well-established judicial principle that the Constitution is a living document. The generation who wrote the 1937 Constitution is the same one that fought for our national freedom. It gave us a free Constitution to empower our people politically, socially and economically. The whole raison d'êtreof this country’s quest for sovereignty and national self-determination was to ensure that Irish people in every generation would be free to chart their own future according to their times, so it is incumbent on the Government to respect the freedom of our people to choose who can make our laws. As long as the Seanad remains unreformed in its electoral system, disregarding the democratic right of every person to have a vote, the Government is not respecting the constitutionally embedded freedom of our people. Let us make no mistake about it; the power now for this kind of Seanad reform is in the hands of the Government. If we do not see this kind of reform for the next Seanad election the fault will rest with this Government, and that will start here in this Chamber this evening if this motion does not pass.

Let me come then to the first component of our motion, the first of the two fundamental principles of Seanad reform – universal suffrage. It is the most basic principle in any election process. In a democracy every citizen should be entitled to vote for those who govern them. Those who are opposed to universal suffrage for the Seanad cite a range of reasons as to why, in their view, it should not be used in Seanad elections, but I do not think those arguments hold much water. Some have suggested that an extension of the franchise would result in a Seanad whose make-up mirrored that of the Dáil. That is not true; it is inaccurate. Geographical constituencies elect the Dáil, with voters in a certain area only being permitted to vote for candidates running within such constituencies. In contrast, the Seanad would be elected by a national electorate, so where a voter lives and where the candidate lives will be of zero relevance in a Seanad election.

There have also been suggestions that if the franchise is extended the Seanad will somehow rival the Dáil. The role of the Seanad is set out in the Constitution. It is principally a House of the Legislature. The Seanad plays a crucial role in ensuring that legislation is given a second look based on expert and informed views, knowledge and practical experience in a range of specific sectors as identified in the panels. In spite of its valued role as the House of legislation, too often the Seanad’s role in scrutinising the law is dismissed in the interests of political expediency. All too often the Government uses the Stages of the legislative process as a box-ticking exercise and the guillotine is regularly applied to debates. That is not the way to make good legislation. Let us take a look even this week at the Seanad’s schedule. It is another "Seanad-lite" week. Where is the legislation now when we have time for it? Why is it not here? Where there is a political will, there is a way, but us let us be clear, there is no truth in the assertion that a Seanad that is elected by the population would rival or even mirror the Dáil. The Seanad’s role is set out in the Constitution and also in Standing Orders. The Seanad complements the Dáil. Extending the franchise would not alter the role of the Seanad.

One person, one vote is an important concept. The vast majority of Members in this House are elected by a small cohort of local authority members who could have five, six or seven votes each, yet the ordinary person who did not have the privilege of going to a certain university has no say whatsoever in the make-up of this House. That is indefensible. One person, one vote is about ensuring that all voters are treated equally. The views of one person in a ballot box are just as important as the next. Why should we tolerate a situation where a teacher or a nurse might have one vote but a person who never had the privilege of going to university or third level has no vote and local authority members have six or seven votes? As members of the Government said repeatedly during the campaign, it is elitist. That must end and we must work collectively to bring it to an end. While the Taoiseach’s strategy to extend the franchise of the university panels to all third level graduates is welcome, it will not bring about an end to elitism on its own. In fact, on its own it will exacerbate elitism. Such a limited statutory change would leave 90% of the Seanad totally unaffected.

The second part of the motion is all about time. We need the immediate establishment of the task force to consider Seanad legislative reform, starting with the two fundamental principles. One could ask why that is so important. If the people are to be given their constitutional right to a vote in a Seanad general election next time around, we must have passed a Bill to that effect by the end of 2014. One could ask why that is the case. It is because it will take some considerable time in 2015 to set up the new electoral process and system, to inform the people of their right to vote and to devise a way of registering and voting for the preferred panel choice. If that does not happen it will be at least another seven years before the possibility of this kind of reform opens up again. The people need to know that. If the Seanad is reformed now, that would ensure that after the next general election we could have a Seanad for the people and elected by all of the people. The Seanad would then be a truly democratically elected Chamber in which the aspirations of the 1937 Constitution would be met. That would be the essence of democracy.