Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Senator Ó Domhnaill wants everything to be done in one fell swoop. While much needs to be done, it must be done by degrees. I welcome the changes being brought about by this Bill in regard to the nomination bodies for Seanad panel member elections. I also welcome the entitlements in regard to postage for Seanad university member elections.The Bill also proposes to amend the Electoral Act 1992 in respect of the supplement to the register of electors for people not resident in Ireland at the time.

I welcome the extension to the university seats of the postage supports afforded to candidates and the provision of one postal communication to every elector. The Minister of State outlined the savings that will be made at Dáil elections for distribution to households. Nothing turns people off more than having a multitude of the same thing coming in their door, six and seven times in some households. The savings of €3.6 million in this regard are to be welcomed and I am sure they will be put to good use. This already is applied to the Seanad elections and while one cannot do it by household, as the Minister of State noted, I refer to the existing arrangements regarding the Seanad election under section 25 and the continuation of those arrangements for the university constituencies. They are necessary because it is a wide electorate located both in this country and in other countries.

Section 2 amends the Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) Act 1947 to include the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, on the register of nominating bodies. The AILG is the amalgamated body comprising the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland, AMAI, and the Association of County and City Councils, ACCC, which represented town councils. Section 2 reinstates the right this body originally had to nominating rights on the administrative panel. I argue that because there was an amalgamation, the Minister of State perhaps should have considered giving them two nominations, namely, one for the ACCC as was, and one for the AMAI. Nevertheless, the AILG has one nomination in this regard. I will turn later to the Committee Stage amendments. As Members are aware, the AILG is a highly professional body that represents councillors and is a networking, policy development and training resource for elected members. It provides regular training and has interaction with all stakeholders, including Senators as elected representatives. I commend all former officers of the AMAI and the ACCC, some of whom have morphed into the AILG, including those who no longer are there. I commend the current president of the AILG, Councillor Colm Brophy, as well as Councillor Mags Murray, chairperson of the Local Authority Members Association, LAMA, and all the volunteer and committed staff in those organisations who are there to keep Members of the Legislature on their toes and to ensure Members try to do what they ask most times. It is to be hoped the Minister of State will listen. In addition, Liam Kenny and Tommy Moylan provide the backup and support for the AILG and I also wish to mention all the volunteers of LAMA.

The Minister of State mentioned she intends to table amendments and I note that nine Government amendments to this Bill have been tabled, six of which deal with an issue that is close to my heart, that is, in having LAMA included for the first time as a nominating body. Therefore, there will be two nominations, which is a restoration of the previous position, whereby there were two people with the facility for nominating. I thank the Minister of State for this proposed amendment. She has listened to the submissions made by me and many others. I also commend Senator Cummins on his role in this regard. I am delighted about this-----