Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I join others in welcoming the nomination of the four new members of the commission. I congratulate them on being successful in achieving these nominations. They bring a good and diverse range of skills which will assist the work of the electoral commission. To highlight one question, I am aware that Professor Fennell brings a particular expertise in respect of gender, which is important in the work of encouraging wider engagement in our electoral system in the context of gender equality. She is one of the nominees who will potentially serve a three-year term. I flag this point because it may be an important aspect, following on, as it does, just a few years after Votáil 100 and when we are still trying to ensure that we have equity in participation among those standing in our electoral system. This would be useful in terms of the education of voters, as well as the wider education function of the commission, because there is something to be done here not just in terms of voters but also in encouraging candidacy and participation in our elections.

In addition, on an international level, I am extremely proud of our proportional representation system. I think it is one of the best electoral systems in the world. Ireland and Malta have this system operating. It has been adopted in some US states and it is a system being debated around the world now. Having a permanent electoral commission, therefore, that can explain and talk about our electoral system and the single transferable vote-proportional representation system internationally will be very useful.

Sadly, however, what I need to focus on for the rest of my time is what is missing. I refer to the large missing piece in respect of the mandate which these new members of the electoral commission will be taking up. We brought forward a proposal, a Bill on Seanad reform, at the very beginning of the last Oireachtas. We were asked to put that proposed legislation aside and, instead, to engage in a cross-party implementation group that would consider the Manning report. We agreed, through that process, with a Seanad reform Bill that was going to offer ways to expand and address the many inequalities that exist in respect of the electoral franchise for elections to the Seanad. We put aside our initial Private Members' Bill and we engaged in that cross-party process. We gave legislation to the then Taoiseach, and now Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, but no progress was made.

At the beginning of this Oireachtas and the Twenty-Sixth Seanad, we again brought forward proposals on Seanad reform. We were again told we did not need to progress them because all these issues were going to be addressed in the context of the electoral commission Bill and when that legislation came through, these functions would be absorbed and addressed through the electoral commission. It was incredibly disappointing, therefore, when the electoral commission was established with a massive, ostentatious gap when it came to the Seanad. The legislation refers to chapter 7 on boundaries relating to the Dáil and the European Parliament and chapter 8 concerning local authorities. We have the European Parliament, the Dáil and the local authorities included in the work of the electoral commission, but the Seanad, the second House of the Oireachtas, the one which has probably had the most controversy in respect of its electoral arrangements, the most issues raised in this regard and the most legislation on the Order Papers trying to address the problems existing terms of electoral representation, constituencies and the configuration in this regard, is ostentatiously missing from the mandate of electoral commission.

We brought forward and proposed amendments to include provisions on the Seanad. We brought forward specific proposals based on the proposals from the cross-party Seanad reform implementation group, on which sat the current Acting Chair and Senator McDowell, along with many others. We also tried to bring forward amendments to state that, under its policy and research remit, the electoral commission would be able to examine the Seanad, its electoral system and reform. We referred to the widest, simplest mandate to even look at the Seanad and even this was not agreed to. We have this electoral commission that leaves out a massive part of the elections in this State.

We must remind the Government that it did not win the referendum to abolish the Seanad. This House does still exist. In that context, it seems very odd that we have an electoral commission which does not look to the Seanad. I know it may not be within the remit of these new ordinary members of the commission to add topics as they wish, although I wish they did have this freedom. This is an issue that will, however, come back up repeatedly as an incredible omission at the time when we are doing something that I very much welcome, that is, to establish a permanent electoral commission in this State. I ask the Minister of State whether he can comment on the plans to review and widen the remit of the commission. This would be useful. I again congratulate the newly-nominated ordinary members of the electoral commission.