Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. It is a long time since the people of Ireland voted on this issue in 1979, in the dim and distant past. That is the first point. The second is that it is five weeks since the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in the matter. It is also the case that the Supreme Court has said it will extend the stay on its decision until the end of July in order that the Government can, in the meantime, come in to tell the Supreme Court how much longer it will need to deal with this problem.

We now have a situation where, on my count, there are five universities and five technical universities. I spoke recently to people involved in one of the universities and they reckon there are between 1.2 million and 1.8 million people entitled to vote as graduates of those universities. That is the first thing we have to get on board. The second is that the Constitution requires that whatever solution is brought about, those 1.2 million to close to 2 million people will be obliged to vote by postal ballot and there are significant logistical issues in that regard.

The next thing is that the 1979 amendment created a series of choices for the Oireachtas. The choices effectively are that the universities can be grouped together in smaller constituencies or can all be put together in one large constituency. I wonder how practical it would be for 1.2 million to 1.8 million people to vote in one constituency.

The other point we have to remember is that if we take the figure of 1.2 million or 1.8 million, it means a minority of people in this country will have a vote on a small part of the composition of this House but the great majority of people who do not have university qualifications will have no say. The time has come to deliver on the commitment made by the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, via the Manning report to implement wider reform of the franchise for the Seanad. As we know, the Manning report was a compromise. It continued in part the role of local authority members in electing some Members of this House, but proposed to give people who had a genuine interest, say, in agriculture, industry and commerce or culture and education, the right to become individual voters on voting panels for those seats.

The time has come for the Government to indicate what it is going to do. This is a complex matter, which I accept, but perhaps the Minister of State will tell the House the following. Has the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, brought a paper to Government on this matter? Is the matter currently under consideration? Is there going to be consultation with the universities and broader society? Is there going to be consultation between the party leaders, the political parties and the Independent Members of these Houses as to what steps the Government proposes to take, or are we going to be given a fait accomplithat this is what the Government has decided in secret at a Cabinet meeting and this is what it is going to tell the Supreme Court it is committed to? The opportunity is there now for the Minister of State to inform the House.