Dr. Maurice Manning:

As I said, we were very aware of the attempts in recent years by this House to reform the House. The House today is very different from the House to which I was elected in 1981. There have been very real reforms which have been achieved in the face of public indifference, media scepticism and it has to be said with no real engagement or support from successive Governments. We recognise these changes in our report and state clearly that: "These innovations provide a sound starting point for a clear definition and consolidation of the ways in which Seanad Éireann can make a distinctive contribution to the overall work of the Oireachtas." We acknowledge also that Seanad Éireann is not unique in having to adapt and change. Parliaments everywhere, but especially second Houses in many countries, are redefining their role and scope, or are having it redefined for them. It also has to be said bluntly that not one of the submissions we received argued for the retention of Seanad Éireann in its current form. The overwhelming mood was for radical change. We believe that the desire for radical change is shared by many Members of this House, by all political parties and by the general public.

The fundamental problems with the existing system, as we saw them, were threefold: an electoral system that was elitist and disfranchised a majority of citizens; a constitutional concept of vocational representation which had little substance in practice and the absence of clear defining guidelines or public understanding of the distinctive role of the Seanad in Irish public life. I mentioned earlier the wide range of reports and submissions we examined. A number of recurring themes permeate these reports.Among the most persistent was the criticism that ordinary citizens were excluded from engaging with the Seanad. The complexity and elitist nature of the electoral process was a major source of contention. A view that the concept of a House of expert and specialist Senators had been lost was also prominent in submissions. Many submissions referred to the potential role of the Seanad in providing a voice for representatives of the diaspora and in providing for a Northern Ireland dimension. These issues were the main focus of our deliberations, with our concern to ensure a Seanad that added genuine value to the legislative, public policy and governmental process and to the democratic process overall.

With all of that in mind, we felt our recommendations should be informed and driven by the following principled objectives. The first principle was to develop and strengthen the vocational nature of the Seanad. The second was to make possible the participation of all Irish citizens in Seanad general elections. The third was to establish a franchise for Irish emigrants who were Irish citizens. The fourth was to allow the electoral participation of those normally resident in Northern Ireland. The fifth was to maintain the link between national and local politics through an electoral college of elected representatives. The sixth was to use the most appropriate and up-to-date modern technologies to modernise the registration and electoral process in a secure way.

As Senators will know, our terms of reference obliged us to work within the framework of Bunreacht na Éireann. Rather than being a constriction, the Constitution offered great clarity. We went back to first principles and asked what the Constitution envisaged the role of Seanad Éireann to be. To begin, it is a House of Parliament, a political House and an essential part of the legislative process. It is part of our system of checks and balances, with important powers of veto in a number of areas. None of these powers has ever been used, but they have potential. It is equally important to note that under the Constitution, Seanad Éireann does not have the power to elect or fire a Taoiseach. The Government is not accountable to the Seanad as it is to the Dáil. It has no power to levy or raise taxes. The Constitution is absolutely clear that the Houses are not equal. This point may be obvious, but it is fundamental to any clear defining of the appropriate role of the Seanad in the political system.

Clearly, the primary role of the Seanad lies in its handling of legislation in all its forms and offshoots. This is not just the initiation and scrutinising and amending of Bills; it also involves examining the European dimension in all of its various forms, the effects of legislation, the policy options, the engagement with wider society and so much more. It is very clear from recent events that this job is not always well done, especially in dealing with legislation. It is something that needs to be adequately resourced. Any reformed Seanad must have the capacity and the will to organise its business in order that Government legislation - all legislation - is dealt with in an orderly and efficient way, its work is distinctive in its approach, it is critical of and disagrees with the other House where it deems appropriate and it is seen as adding value to the overall work of the entire Oireachtas. In other words, it will be expected to disagree with the other House but not to become a permanent roadblock to legislation. It may need a mechanism to help to resolve major differences between both Houses such as the mechanism provided for in the German system.

That the Constitution envisages a House elected on principles of vocational representation is an indication that its membership should be distinctly different from that elected from geographical constituencies. It was not the fault of the Constitution that the vocational concept never operated in practice - it was the fault of subsequent legislation which produced an almost entirely party political electorate which, in turn, elected almost exclusively party politicians, of whom I was very honoured to be one. One of our objectives is to give reality to the concept of vocational representation.We interpret this not as some outdated ideology but as an attempt to ensure the rich stream of voluntary, professional, cultural, sectoral, minority and other such special interest groups will be given an opportunity to nominate candidates for election to Seanad Éireann. Seán Lemass, in the debate on the 1937 Constitution, remarked that he did not believe the country had the necessary infrastructure to produce a genuinely vocational Seanad. He may have been right and probably was in the context of 1937, but his assertion is manifestly not the case today. One of our society's great strengths is the presence within it of so many varied and specialist cultural, environmental, disability, agricultural, educational and professional groups and organisations. The very infrastructure, the absence of which Seán Lemass lamented in 1937 is emphatically present in society today.

No constitutional change is needed to make that to which I refer possible and to open up the system to a wider range of nominating bodies. The legislation governing nominations and nominating bodies requires some development. However, such development is feasible and will give a wide range of groups the opportunity to get their members to register as voters, choose a panel on which to vote and then ask all the people - not just a small number - to send them to Parliament. This might result in a Seanad in which political parties could be in a minority, but it might also result in one that would be more accurately representative of our society. It would allow many disparate groups representing the areas of disability, agriculture, the environment, labour, the unemployed, gender, culture and youth and bodies in Northern Ireland to put forward candidates. It would also ensure the last word would rest with the people. Political parties might well be in a minority in the new Seanad. However, this is a House of Parliament and political parties are and will continue to be a key element in all parliamentary democracies. This point was made strongly in the O'Rourke report and it is a view we endorse. In the context of what we propose, it would be entirely open to political parties to put forward suitably qualified candidates on all panels. Like any group, they would be free to encourage their supporters to register as voters.

That brings me to the electoral changes we recommend. The Constitution lays down that all voting in Seanad elections must be by means of postal ballot. This factor had to influence our thinking. However, the assistance we received from top experts in cyber security at the national cyber security centre and IBM, from Mr. Joe Carthy, professor in cyber crime and security at UCD, and others, all of whom were prepared to work on a pro bonobasis, helped us to reach a position where we could rest assured and feel safe in advocating a system whereby eligible citizens could register online, download their votes and then return them by post. This was a huge breakthrough and my colleague, Mr. O'Toole, will outline what is proposed in that regard in more detail. The net result of what we are suggesting would be that voting rights could be securely extended to holders of current Irish passports overseas and citizens in Northern Ireland, as envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement. This would represent a huge advance. I should add that it would still be possible for those without personal online access to register and receive their ballot papers. Again, Mr. O'Toole will address that matter.

We may be asked why we did not recommend separate constituencies for emigrants and those in Northern Ireland. We thought extremely hard about this but felt very strongly that the creation of a separate Northern constituency would be partitionist and, in some way, represent our regarding Northern Irishness as a different sort of Irishness. We are strongly of the view that the best way to deal with this issue is on the basis of absolute equality for all voters wherever they might be. We also believe the existing system of election to the 43 panel seats is unsustainable by any democratic criterion. We know that this view is shared by a majority on all sides. As a result, we recommend the extension of a vote to all eligible citizens in the filling of 30 of the 43 seats and, in a separate constituency and on a one person one vote basis, the six university seats.Again, people must choose between one of the panels or university votes, but the concept will be strictly one person, one vote.

We also believed very strongly that under a vocational system there should be a direct link with locally and regionally elected representatives. We know the value of this direct link with local government and we have no difficulty in defending it. People may argue that having to register for a vote is burdensome but registering to vote is normal in most democracies and while voting is a right, it is also a privilege. Political parties would have a vested interest in seeing that their supporters register and the many vocational groups who will be seeking representation are well geared to encourage and help their members to register. I am sure that public spirited people will have no hesitation in getting themselves on the register.

Since this report appeared it has received some words of welcome from a number of people in the media. I will briefly cite what was stated about it by the Second Republic, a body which made a very valuable submission to our process. It stated that the working group's recommendations answer the needs identified in our public consultation of more than 1,200 people on Seanad reform. I welcome that comment. Since the publication of this report the most frequent reaction, especially from media commentators, has been: "Great, but so what? Nothing ever happens. How many earlier reports are lying there gathering dust? We share this scepticism. There are good historical grounds for our doubts. That is why we put such huge emphasis on the implementation process, why we spelled it out in such verifiable detail and why, with the help of Mr. Brian Hunt and Mr. Michael McDowell, we have produced our own draft Bill, which is being published today and which will be available shortly.

Mr. Joe O'Toole will deal with these matters shortly but what we are saying to the Government and to all the political parties is that we expect this report to be taken seriously. We were given a job to do in the expectation that a reasonable report would lead to change. We have done our job seriously. We do not believe for one moment that ours is the last word or that there may not be improvements on what we have done, or that a new Seanad in the future may not ask for further change through constitutional amendment, but what we expect is that our seriousness will be matched by that of the Government and the other parties. Already there are indications from both the Government and other parties that the report is being taken seriously. Most of all, I appeal to those Members of this House, and they are on all sides of it, who have spoken out and fought for reform, who have asked for this House to be opened up to the people, who have asked for votes for the diaspora and Northern Ireland, who want a House that reflects the vocational complexity of our contemporary society and who want a different sort of politics, to seize this opportunity. I will ask my colleague, Mr. Joe O'Toole, to add his comments.