Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Those are three small examples of how the Seanad is treated with which I do not agree.

Much of today's and previous debates has centred on how the Seanad is elected. This should be dealt with on a broader term. I do not agree with taking the vote away from councillors, as has been suggested. While there is talk about Seanad and local authority reform, there is never any talk about Dáil reform. Local authority reform reduced the number of councillors and abolished town councils. Deputies made that decision and councillors had no say in the matter. That is not right as councillors work on the ground and deal with constituents every day. Without them, we would not function as a State. One cannot just reform the local authorities and the Seanad without doing anything about the Dáil.

I believe in extending the Seanad franchise to the diaspora and giving it a say. When I was an emigrant in London for four years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I always came home to vote. Apart from the fact my father would have killed me if I did not, I felt passionately about politics back then in my late teens and early 20s. As every emigrant cannot do that, there must be a way of extending the vote to the diaspora. It has to be carefully examined, however. If one looks at the electoral register, it is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. If we cannot get the register right for general or local elections, how can we get it right if we extend the vote to the diaspora across the world? I also do not agree with online voting as this would open the doors to allow people to fiddle with the register. It was argued that only people who pay tax should get the vote. That is not necessarily right either but that would be important for the committee to examine.

For the purposes of Seanad elections, the country should be divided into regions. I enjoyed and had a great time on the recent Seanad campaign, which one is not supposed to admit. I saw places I had never seen before from the Inishowen Peninsula all the way down to Cork. However, as a politician, I might not necessarily be relevant to someone on the Inishowen Peninsula. The Seanad electoral base should be divided into regions to allow Senators to represent one region, canvass it and get to know its issues. I agree with most of what Senators Daly and Mulherin said. I support the Bill's sentiment and acknowledge the work Senator McDowell has put into it. I support its passage to Committee Stage because some amendments need to be made to it.