Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dr. Maurice Manning and Mr. Joe O'Toole and thank them for coming back to the House. I acknowledge and applaud their work and the publication of the report and the extraordinary work of the members of their group too. It is an extremely helpful resource for us. I also thank them for their perseverance. I know there were ongoing meetings in the background to keep this process moving and am most grateful for that and I hope they are successful in this regard. I spoke the last time they were here, but I have a few more things to add given the passage of some time.

To begin, I refer to the fact that Senator Quinn and I published a motion yesterday evening which is listed in today's Order Paper. It reads: "That Seanad Éireann calls on the Government to establish immediately the Implementation Body recommended in the Report of the Working Group on Seanad Reform 2015, and that the Implementation Body immediately begins to liaise with draft-persons to develop a Seanad Amendment Bill that reflects the spirit and text of the Report, as well as carrying out the other responsibilities recommended in the Report.”

I hope both our statements sessions will be resources for the group when it is established. It is great to see the opportunity here today for people to reflect on the draft Bill and to comment on it, as Senator Bacik has just done, since we did not really have it in front of us the last time. As I said, I hope these statements will be resources for the group. Otherwise these sessions are nothing more than talking shops, which is what people said no to in the referendum. They did not want the old Seanad. Notwithstanding the earlier remarks of Senator O'Brien on the reforms which have taken place and the quality of the work we do, we do not want these sessions to be talking shops and neither do the people. If our words cannot feed into the work of the implementation body for this report, we are simply playing out the old Seanad right here, in the present, right now.In his remarks on the Order of Business Senator Darragh O'Brien referred to what the Taoiseach did today. I woke up this morning to hear that the Taoiseach would be briefing Opposition leaders on his views or decisions on Seanad reform and the establishment of an implementation body. I wondered all day whether it was happening. Now it sounds like it is, which I welcome. However, I want to know why we found out about it after RTE. For once and for all I am hoping we can have some open government, especially in the effort to reform the Seanad. Let us abolish the secrecy. Why is it so hard to receive information on what is going on, especially for those who have been so involved in the process of the retention and reform of the Seanad?

I welcome the announcement which now appears to be true. With Senator Darragh O'Brien and others, I hope the Leader will be included in this body. He was not a member of the working group, although, of course, it did do excellent work. His comments this afternoon, as well as during the previous session, were reflective and helpful in terms of the work the body might do. As stated in the motion tabled by Senator Feargal Quinn and me, I hope it will get to work immediately. It should use as a prime resource the Bill published, with Dr. Manning's and Mr. O'Toole's report. The Bill was drafted by Mr. Brian Hunt - no finer draftsman could most of us find. It should also take into account our work and bring the heads of the Bill to a committee early in September, to be enacted before the end of the term of office of the Government. I do not believe that is impossible to do because we have had so many discussions and debates in the lead-up to the publication of any Bill. That is not to say we still do not have to tease everything out. Of course, we can do that and there would be time to do so. It would be possible to do it. If Members are questioning whether there will be sufficient time, I wonder if it ultimately indicates an underlying resistance to change. I do not think so, however, because I believe my colleagues want reform as much as I do. I do not see any reason we would not have enough time, given all of our debates on reform up to this point.

I favour giving votes to the diaspora, but we need to tease out the many details. The working group on Seanad reform did much of the work and some other reports are feeding into it. It is great to hear some of the comments being made. If we had doubts before the recent referendum about whether we should give votes to the diaspora - Senator Ivana Bacik referred to this issue - how could any of us resist it now? The use of HomeToVotestill makes me quite emotional. People who are away want to be engaged. I am also aware of persons who were deeply disappointed that they could not come home to vote because they had emigrated more than 18 months ago. There is a problem with that restriction. Why can the Seanad not lead on this issue? Why can it not be the Government's first demonstration of a genuine engagement with the diaspora? I see no reason the working group's recommendation of online registration of voters and the downloading of ballot papers could not be implemented to facilitate a deepening of democracy. I applaud the working group for its efforts to engage in very extensive research on the issue, demonstrating how we could move forward on it and giving us confidence that it could actually work. As Senators know, I am originally from the United States of America where I still vote. I download my ballot paper and ensure I continue to be registered online. I post my ballot paper and it works. It has worked for many years and is not that big of a deal. What might be a big deal is how to have it installed here and ensure it works. The working group has demonstrated that we could move forward on the issue.

I welcome the proposed reform of vocational representation in the Seanad by opening up the nomination process and, of course, having one-person one-vote for most seats. I agree with the working group's statement that our nomination and voting process "fails to realise the constitutional ambition to create a largely vocational chamber which would represent a diversity of views, minority voices and specialist experience". However, I also listened closely to the remarks of Senator Paschal Mooney and others the last time we debated the matter. In putting forward that view one questions whether it could be a critique of the performance of current or past Members in terms of vocational representation. I listened carefully to some of the things Senator Paschal Mooney said and do not think so necessarily. Senator Paschal Mooney and many others, if not all of my colleagues, demonstrate an exceptional performance in that regard in representing the vocational concerns of the panel they represent. This is a criticism of the system of nomination and election, not necessarily of individual Members who come from it. The system should be opened up in order that we would have as wide a range of candidates as necessary to reflect the complexity and diversity of modern life. The working group's recommendation that "the level of knowledge and the practical experience required of candidates in the Constitution be defined in legislation" is a good one.

I thank Dr. Manning and Mr. O'Toole. Are we having an implementation body? It sounds as if we are. When will the Taoiseach speak to us? There is still time for him to do so. How can the Government go to the people next time around without reforming the Seanad? There is no excuse not to do so. I do not think there should be further delays. We cannot have more talking shops. The Government should let the people see that its legacy is reform rather than resistance to it?