Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The point I would make is that now is the time to act on this. It is one of the tasks that should be put to the Electoral Commission. Under the legislation, it has a role in this. Senator Buttimer mentioned the Pontifical University at Maynooth but the Bill provides that it is up to the Minister to designate the institutions. The Minister can designate which higher education institutions qualify. The Bill also answers the questions around those who are awarded by overseas institutions and whether they should be designated. That would be a matter for the Minister under the legislation. That is no different to other legislation under which the Minister is allowed to designate the bodies that are granting awards and so on. Any awards that are designated level 8 or above within the system would be a good starting point but we can certainly debate going beyond that.

The crux of this legislation is to give effect to a decision of the people that was taken 43 years ago. It is also about reforming this Chamber. It is something that is relatively easy to do in the context of the broader issue of Seanad reform. As Senator Buttimer said, there is broad agreement that this is something we can do in advance of the next Seanad elections.

We are awaiting a Supreme Court judgment in the Heneghan case. That may be directly relevant to this legislation. We will be moving pretty soon, with the agreement of the Leader of the House and the Department, to the Committee Stage debate on this legislation. Given the fact that the Department has achieved all of its goals with regard to the Electoral Commission and other areas and that two years ago the Minister of State committed to firming up the Department's position on some of the administrative issues within this legislation, I hope that within the next two to three months, when we deal with the remaining Stages of the Bill, the Government will clarify its position on these matters. I also hope that we can return to the people by the time of the next Seanad election and say that we have delivered this element of reform.