Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House again. As the Cathaoirleach has said, we are becoming friends in the context of debates on electoral reform. I am very happy to present this legislation to the House on Second Stage. To set it in context, one of the greatest achievements in society since the foundation of the State has been the significant and dramatic growth in the number of people who have gone on to further and higher education. We have moved from a situation where college was for a small elite to a point where we now have mass participation. Given the rapid changes we are experiencing, we are all going to need to upskill and reskill, and our higher education institutions and training centres are more than up for the challenge.

At the time of the composition of the Seanad in the 1930s, only about one in 50 young people went on to university. Today, more than three in five of the relevant age cohort go on to study in a higher education institution in this State. When the number who study outside the State and those who engage in further education and training are taken into account, we have moved to a situation where further or third level education, while not quite universal, is seen as being within reach of everybody. While more can and should be done to improve access to education, successive governments deserve credit for investing in education. That investment afforded me an opportunity to go on to college, and it afforded many others that opportunity as well. Ireland is now rightly recognised as a global centre for talent, innovation and creativity.

At the time of the 1979 referendum on the Seanad universities panel, participation rates had grown to about 20% of the age cohort. The older universities had been joined by the regional technical colleges, which would evolve to become institutes of technology, the National Institute for Higher Education, NIHE, in Limerick, which had been established in 1972 and went on to become the University of Limerick, UL, and the National Institute for Higher Education in Dublin, which went on to become Dublin City University, DCU, and which was established in 1980. The plan behind the 1979 referendum seems primarily to have been to ensure that the university seats could continue if it was the case that the National University of Ireland, NUI, was to dissolve. Interestingly, there is very limited legal or academic literature on the changes to the Constitution as a result of this referendum. Clearly, given that it took place in 1979, there has been no urgency on the part of the Oireachtas to address the results of that vote of the people.

A few specific changes have been made to give effect to the referendum result, the most recent of which was a 2013 Bill introduced by Fianna Fáil Senators. The leader of the Fianna Fáil group at the time was Senator Darragh O'Brien, and I am assured that the now Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage will deliver on the desire for reform that he and his colleagues espoused at the time. The principles underpinning this Bill are the same as those that underpinned the Bill initiated seven years ago.

I am very conscious of the bigger question of Seanad reform, the composition of this House and how it operates. I look forward to that debate and to contributing to that process of change. I know some believe that the Seanad should be elected on a universal franchise rather than through specific panels. I do not believe that the Seanad should be a mirror image of the Dáil. I believe that an effective second Chamber should operate in a different manner and that the Seanad is at its most effective when it provides alternative perspectives and different expertise from those of the Lower House. This Bill can be seen as a first step on the road to Seanad reform, but it needs to be taken on its own merits. In the first instance, and most importantly, it is giving effect to a vote of the people. It also addresses the anomaly whereby graduates of certain institutions are granted the right to vote on the basis that they have obtained a degree or higher education qualification and not because of the institution that they attended. To put it in perspective, of the 32,993 graduates from publicly funded higher education institutions in this State who obtained a primary honours degree in 2018, 3,023 were from Trinity College Dublin, 11,741 were from the NUI institutions - UCD, UCC, NUIG and Maynooth University, while 18,229 were from other institutions. Even if the graduates from the NUI and Trinity are combined, they are still a lesser number than those from all of the other publicly funded institutions in the State. This Bill proposes to broaden the right to vote to include graduates of the University of Limerick, Dublin City University, the Technological University, TU, Dublin, the new Munster technological university, the institutes of technology, some of which will also become technological universities in the near future, and other colleges. It provides that, in future, an institution that makes awards that are recognised as part of the framework of qualifications managed by Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, can, with ministerial approval, ensure that its graduates will have a vote in Seanad elections.

The Bill currently provides for institutions in the State, but I believe that a mechanism could be found in the future that could also provide for graduates from the North, from Queen's University Belfast or Ulster University, to have a vote, and I believe that this is an issue that should be discussed as part of the work of the shared island unit in the Department of An Taoiseach. The proposal in this Bill is that we will abolish the two current three-seat university constituencies and create a single six-seat constituency. The Bill does not make specific provision for the management of the electoral register for the universities panel. It has been acknowledged by the NUI and Trinity that there are challenges with the existing registers and this issue needs to be addressed.

The Minister of State will be very much aware, as most of us will, that there are similar challenges with the register of electors generally that we use for all of our elections and referendums. I welcome the fact that the Government is regarding the establishment of an electoral commission as a high priority, and I know of the Minister of State's personal commitment to ensure that this happens. My understanding is that the heads of that Bill will soon be brought to Cabinet and we should see proposed legislation on this area in the first half of 2021. One of the key immediate tasks for this new commission will be the overhaul of the general register of electors and the Seanad register, and these need to be brought into the digital age. In the short term I would envisage that when granting the vote for the universities panel, graduates of other institutions would be required to opt in to register to vote. I believe that it would be quite cumbersome and costly to ask institutions to carry out a formal process where they try to register all possible graduate voters.

I have been fortunate to have had discussions with the Minister of State as well as the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and departmental officials, and I am grateful that there is a commitment from Government to look at the broader question of Seanad reform and that proposals will be brought from the Department next year. It would be good to see developments in this area. I am satisfied, however, that by this explicit commitment that has been given to me by Government, regardless of how far we have progressed with overall Seanad reform, during 2021 the seventh amendment to the Constitution will finally be enacted and we will have voting rights on the universities panel extended to graduates of other institutions.

The Minister of State recently took part in an excellent debate in this House on a Bill that was brought forward by Senators Ruane and Higgins that touched on the issue of political funding and campaigning. I have to say that, since my election to the House, it was probably the debate I enjoyed most because it was quite free ranging and people were quite honest, as the number of Senators who were here at the time will recall.The debate strayed into other areas that are really important: political literacy, the regulation of online political advertising, micro targeting and misinformation.

Given the importance of this legislation on an electoral commission to the underpinning our democracy and to avoid any possibility that this area of work gets delayed or bogged down at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which is also going to be dealing with some incredibly important issues, I would urge that a separate Oireachtas committee to address the electoral commission and the issues with which it must deal would be established. One of these matters very clearly has to be around the Seanad register.

I put forward this Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill in a spirit of partnership. I welcome contributions as to how it can be improved. I appreciate that the Government wishes to consider the broader question of Seanad reform, but I do welcome assurances that the next Seanad election will see the extension of the graduate franchise and, finally, in 2021, after what will be 42 years, we will enact the seventh amendment to the Constitution.