Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Indeed, I was. I recall that the Minister was a very constructive Senator. I took on board much of his wisdom at the time - that is why I am here.

I would say to the six Senators elected from the university panel - Senators Norris, Quinn, Crown, Mullen, Barrett and Bacik who jumped through the hoop and is now a Labour Party Senator even though she was elected from the university panel - that they have nothing to fear from the extension of the franchise to approximately 1 million people. Extending the franchise to the general public would be the ultimate step but that is not likely to happen. I am sure the Cathaoirleach might not be enthusiastic about that but he cannot say anything about that because he is the Cathaoirleach.

Since the referendum in 1979 no Government has brought forward legislation to implement the decision of the people at that time, which was that this franchise would be extended, particularly to the colleges and the new universities like the University of Limerick. I request the Minister to consider adopting a Bill that I published on 22 October 2013, which I handed to the Taoiseach. We wrote a note to each other and I said at the time "a joint project, I hope, will be the case". The Minister is accompanied by two senior officials and I am sure they are aware of that Bill.

The Long Title of my Bill was:

An Act to provide for the amendment of the Seanad Electoral (University Members) Acts 1937 to 2006, to provide for the provisions of the seventh amendment of Bunreacht na hÉireann and to extend the franchise of the university panel of Seanad Éireann to all people who are over eighteen and legally resident in Ireland and are holders of an appropriate third level qualification from an Irish Institute of Higher Education and to provide for related matters.

It provided for amendment of section 6 of Act of 1937 as follows:

Section 6 of the principal Act is amended by the substitution of the following for section 6:all Universities and Institutions of Higher Education in the State shall be a constituency (in this Act referred to as the University Constituency) for the election of six members of Seanad Éireann;
every person who is for the time being registered as an elector in the register of electors for the University constituency shall be entitled to vote in that constituency; and
the Minister may make regulations to give effect to any matter or thing that is referred to in this Act.It also provided that:
every regulation made under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas;
no person shall be entitled to vote at an election in a university constituency unless he is registered as an elector in the register of electors for the constituency.

It further provided that:

the qualification of ‘degree’ referred [to] ... shall be construed as defined in the framework of qualifications established by the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland or its successor bodies, under section 7 of the Qualifications (Education and Training) Act 1999;
the qualification of ‘diploma’ referred in subsection (1) shall be construed as defined in the framework of qualifications established by the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland or its successor;
any person, who would not be disqualified for membership of the Dáil under section 41 of the Electoral Act 1992, and may vote in that university constituency, may declare their candidacy in that constituency.

There are quite a number of excellent private colleges such as Yeats College and Hibernia College. These are private institutions that bring students to degree qualifications level. I want to ensure that they will be included in the extension of the franchise. It will be up to every college to hold a register of electors. The students who have qualified would be on that roll and that would be made available to the candidates. The majority of candidates would only canvass by way of the Internet. The voting could be defined as electoral voting. It would be a confined way of voting, bringing back a system of automatic voting machines in a sense, although not bringing back those machines as they have been scrapped.