Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I compliment Senator McDowell on pushing this Bill forward. When I became a Senator, he was one of the first people I spoke to about the Bill and he was very insistent about getting support for it. I also second the points made by Senator Lawless regarding the Irish diaspora, of which I was a member for 20 years. I think I was more Irish abroad than I am in my own country. I support most of what the Senator said. Ireland is almost unique in not allowing even a bare level of voting access for the recently emigrated and it is my hope that this Bill will go some way towards remedying that problem.

My approach to this Bill is one of frustration that the reform of this archaic Chamber has taken so long and that this issue has not advanced more since we introduced it in July. I respect the points made by Senator Reilly but, nevertheless, in my opinion, diversity is strength and movement. We need to move on with things. We cannot just think and debate forever. We need to put things into effect. The Manning report was the 12th such review of the powers and make-up of the Seanad. We have been debating its powers and electoral process for most of the history of the Republic. We passed a referendum to expand its democratic mandate through the enlargement of the university panel franchise by an overwhelming 92% as far back as 1979. This still has not been acted on. Having been a student of Waterford Institute of Technology, I have no vote in the process. Previous processes have been far too slow and even less effective. Reforming the Seanad was voted one of the most pressing concerns by the Constitutional Convention, second only to greater environmental protection. The Irish people voted to keep and reform the Seanad three years ago this month and we have still to make that a reality.

This Bill is not perfect. The Green Party position would be to more radically change the nature of the Seanad to make it the primary body that scrutinises EU legislation with even greater freedom from Government dominance than that provided for in this Bill. We would like to see the Seanad have more power than it currently has to imbue it with greater importance not just by changing the way it is elected but by increasing public focus on its work by making it more crucial to the legislative process. We want to change the way business is handled and to expand its functions to include the development and facilitation of participative democratic functions. Some of this would necessitate a change to the constitutional nature of the Seanad but much can be achieved once the newly restructured Seanad outlined in this Bill is made a reality.

It is my belief that the Seanad can be a greater Chamber. There are plenty of examples of senates around the world that play a crucial role in their democracies. The Australian Senate has long provided a crucial control in respect of the see-saw politics of the two-party system of the lower chamber there, while also allowing for the representation of alternative views. In much of Europe and elsewhere, upper houses have facilitated federalism and positive decentralisation. Although the US Senate has been undergoing some tough reputational times, it has often lived up to its reputation as the "greatest deliberative body in the world". Well-structured upper chambers can play a key role in modern democracies holding governments and lower chambers to account and introducing new thought and new ways of doing business into the legislative process.

In order to do this, some key characteristics are essential. They should be elected or composed in a different fashion to that of their respective lower chambers. They should make some effort to temper the partisan divisions that can dominate lower houses. They should be largely or completely popularly elected. They can also offer dedicated representation to groups in society that are otherwise under-represented. This Bill in particular does much on that front.

The Seanad reform Bill that I have sponsored, along with all my colleagues in the Civil Engagement group, addresses many of these key concerns and lays out a vision of a more democratic and legitimate Seanad in line with its original intentions when it was conceived in the 1937 Constitution.The Bill will finally make a reality of the 1979 referendum result and democratise the university panels by merging them and admitting all Irish graduates into the franchise. The university panels have provided us with some of our more impressive political figures over the years, including Mary Robinson and Senators Norris, Higgins and Ruane. The University of Dublin panel in particular played a role in providing representation to minority communities during the early Republic. A reformed Seanad can play a similar role in finally granting those Irish forced to move abroad by the economic collapse some form of representation in their native political system through their inclusion in the Seanad voting panels, and with provision at long last of some form of national postal voting. That will bring us one step closer to ensuring we cherish all the children of the Republic equally. The Bill also finally restores the vocationality of the panels by requiring that candidates actually have some knowledge and experience of the topics they are elected to represent. It restores the balance towards the nominating bodies and away from the political parties in the Dáil. This Bill will create a renewed, more democratic and more informed Upper House and I urge all Senators and Deputies to give it their full support, as I intend to do.