Seanad debates

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

2:25 pm

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is not real reform. The Constitutional Convention is meeting this weekend and may discuss the future of the Seanad. The Taoiseach and the Oireachtas should give the Constitutional Convention a fresh mandate to properly examine Seanad and Dáil reform in the wake of the referendum results. We should properly ventilate all of the ideas and return with proposals, and then the Government can examine the proposals. In doing so, it would be appropriate for the Government to set clear parameters and guiding principles that will underpin Seanad reform. The first guiding principle in reforming the House is universal franchise - one person, one vote - for all citizens. We cannot continue with the method of election to Seanad Eireann that we have had for far too long, in which people are elected by city or county councillors or if they are fortunate enough to be members of certain universities. That has to stop, as it is elitist and undemocratic. If we want to citizens to have real value in the Seanad and a real connection to it, we must give them a vote. My view is that we have one person, one vote, and holding Seanad elections on the same day as Dáil elections is the best way to proceed to something I would like to see. That is one of the core principles that should underpin reform of the Seanad.

There is consensus on giving a voice to the Irish diaspora and citizens in the North from either side of the community. If we want to build bridges and work toward unity in the country, we must give a voice to people across the island of Ireland. Far too many people living in the North of Ireland are Irish and are disenfranchised. They are not seen or valued by the State as part of the Irish nation. If we give citizens in the North a vote in Seanad elections, it would be a very good and useful step towards Irish unity. It would also be the right thing to do.

We should have equal gender balance. That is difficult to achieve, but we should aim for 50% representation of women in the Seanad and the Dáil. I am one of the people who supported the Government's gender quotas and the instruments the Government brought in to help achieve increased gender representation in the Dáil. We must also do so in the Seanad. There should be representation of marginalised minority groups. The Seanad can examine this point.

I did not get a chance to discuss the powers of the Seanad, one of which should be to scrutinise EU legislation. There is consensus on that point. We are up for real and radical reform. I hope the Government and the Taoiseach are too. I do not want to end up in a situation after the next Dáil election in which we elect Senators in the same way as we have done for decades. That would be a failure of the political system. We need to get this right and to push for as much reform as possible. I commend Senators who have been active on the issue and have pursued it relentlessly. They have used their Private Members' time on several occasions to ensure we have proper debate in the House.

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