David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The next thing is the question of the university seats. I have spoken previously on the matter. Frankly, the idea of a whole-island constituency for the panel seats is daft. It would involve vast numbers. How would people canvass if there were several million people voting? I would not fancy that at all.

Whatever is going to happen, whether implementation committees or anything else, it ain't going to happen before the next election. That is what I feel in my waters, and nothing the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, said to me at lunchtime during the week will make me change my mind on the matter. However, those responsible might just tinker around with the university seats, because we are the soft option. The view is that they are the ones to go for. Then they can say they have reformed it and made it democratic. The university seats are already perfectly democratic. They are the only really democratic element of the whole House. There are two constituencies, with 65,000 in one and 110,000 in the other. The proposal is to run them all together into one monster constituency with 850,000. That is only magnifying the distortion. In the old days we went from 65,000 and 100,000 down to 1,000 councillors and then down to one person. That is a distortion, but that distortion will be immensely magnified if we have a situation where the university seats are all jammed together and we have 850,000 voters, while we leave the other constituencies the same way. Anyway, that is what I believe is most likely to happen.

I know my view will not be popular and I am sure it will lose me votes, but what about it? I have always said what I believe to be the truth regardless of the consequences. In 1979 there was a vote to extend the franchise, but it was to extend the franchise to other universities, not to every kind of third level institution. If there is no distinction between universities and third level institutions of various mixed hues all over the place, why has the Department fought against the recognition of a fine third level institution, Waterford Institute of Technology? It is not recognised as a university. There is a clear distinction between universities and other third level institutions in the world of real politics. They are not the same thing. I would prefer to extend it to the other universities, in limited number, and keep the two constituencies.

I have already spoken on this on numerous occasions. I was one of those who made a submission to the group. It consisted of my speeches in the Seanad and some other papers because what I have had to say, I have said. There is no point in inventing a series of extra things simply to make myself look important. The important matters are those that I have specified in my contributions to the Seanad.

I look forward to Seanad reform and I congratulate my two former colleagues on what they have done and the work they have done. However, my realistic appraisal of the situation is that, implementation body or not, I do not believe anything substantial will happen in advance of the next election. There is a possibility that the Government will be tempted to tinker with the university seats. Frankly, I believe that would be disastrous. I do not think they will have it in place - even for the university seats - by the time of the next election. I do not believe that is realistic given the need to compile the registers and so on. It is a major job. First they will have to get the legislation through and then the register would have to be compiled and so on. It will not affect me because the next election is probably the last one I will go in, but I still feel strongly about.