Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

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

I wish to share time with Senator Ruane. I welcome the Minister to the House.

We are proposing this legislation today to address a number of the key issues and gaps in terms of our electoral law with an overarching aim of enhancing democratic participation and voting rights. As we celebrated Vótáil 100 only a couple of years ago, the look to how we expand our franchise and how we increase and evolve democracy is something we all should be taking very seriously.

I will outline quickly some of the sections of the Bill. Section 1 is interpretation.

Section 2 seeks to amend the membership of the Electoral Commission to ensure there is a requisite expertise in Seanad elections. This Bill proposes the Clerk of the Seanad but I am aware that concerns have been raised in relation to that individual being the appropriate person. The standing point is that there should be expertise within the Electoral Commission in respect of the Seanad. However, I will indicate that I am happy to amend or remove section 2 from the Bill if necessary because, while section 2 addresses the membership, the fundamental points here are the points around the mandate of the Electoral Commission and the kinds of work we need it to be doing in order to deliver a genuinely inclusive modern democracy.

Sections 3 and 4 of the Bill come to the heart of the issue the Bill is seeking to address.

The House will be aware that a number of weeks ago the Supreme Court ruled that the Oireachtas must legislate in respect of the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution, that is, to expand the franchise in respect of universities and graduates. This was a welcome decision and I commend Mr. Tomás Heneghan on taking the case. It is important to place this case in the context of a failure to legislate for the 1979 referendum being followed by a long history of evasion and delays around meaningful Seanad reform from successive Governments over many decades.

The majority of the public who voted against abolition of the Seanad in 2013 did themselves not have a vote in electing this House but they voted to retain the Seanad because they value its work and because they want a say in it. It was very clear that there was a mandate for reform which came out of that 2013 referendum. Following that referendum, the Manning report was developed which set out a roadmap for how reform could be delivered.On the very first day of the previous Seanad, a number of Senators, including Senator McDowell, and I brought forward legislation to say let us deliver on the Manning report. We were asked by the then Taoiseach, who is now the current Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, to set aside that legislation and instead engage in a cross-party implementation group. The cross-party Seanad reform implementation group did its work collectively and produced, as it was required to do, agreed cross-party legislation that would deliver a wide mandate and ensure that every citizen has the chance to vote for the Upper House and who represents them there.

The Government then shelved the report and legislation. It fell to me, Senator McDowell and others to introduce the legislation from that cross-party group as the Seanad Bill 2020. When the Bill was on Second Stage, the Government assured us that these issues of Seanad reform would be dealt with through the creation of the Electoral Commission, yet when the Electoral Reform Act to establish the Electoral Commission rolled along, there was a very clear and glaring omission. The commission would deal with local elections, national Dáil elections and European elections but not with the Seanad election or franchise.

The Government and, indeed, the Minister of State did not accept any amendments to enhance the mandate of the commission at that time. Now, with the Supreme Court ruling, the Government has run out of road in some of its evasions and is required to outline what actions it will take to deliver Seanad reform by 31 July. I am expecting the Minister of State to outline and inform the House on what actions he plans to take in his response today. We need to be really clear, however, that a minimalist approach to legislating on this issue would not be true to either the 1979 or 2013 referendums. The reform we need and on which we have been waiting for a long time needs to be both ambitious and comprehensive. It will not be enough to simply say we will extend the vote to a few extra graduates or even to all graduates. It is important that every person and citizen in this country has a say in the House that supervises and scrutinises half of the legislative process. We need, therefore, to ensure that it is an ambitious, comprehensive transposition.

The person who successfully took that Supreme Court case, Mr. Tomás Heneghan, has been very clear. He stated: “I hope the Oireachtas now acts speedily to ensure that the democratic right to vote in Seanad elections is extended to all, regardless of educational or socio-economic background." He said the Seanad Bill 2020 must be progressed without further delay and obfuscation from Government. He specifically named that as a way to deliver the spirit of that Supreme Court ruling.

While passing the Seanad Bill 2020 would be the most direct way to deliver the reform needed, there is also scope for the Electoral Commission to support that reform. By amending section 65 of the 2022 Act, we would give the commission a firm mandate to support Seanad reform. Chapter 7A is modelled on chapter 7, which deals with Dáil constituency reviews, and would enable the commission to review the electoral system and franchise, as currently set out. It would require that when reviewing that franchise, the commission would look to the 2015 report of the working group on Seanad reform, the 2018 report on the Seanad reform implementation group, the Seanad Bill 2020 and, crucially, Article 18.4.2 of the Constitution, which was inserted back in 1979.

This legislation would mandate the commission to begin this work upon commencement, and passing this legislation is a concrete step that is available to the Government to begin the overdue reform. Again, I would signal that while reform of the university panels would be welcome, it must be accompanied by reform of the vocational panels.

This is about democracy. It is important to remember that every Seanad since the 2013 referendum, including the one in which we currently sit, has existed because the Irish public chose to put their faith in the possibility of reform and the idea that this House could be relevant to them, and that it is something they believed and expected they would be able to shape.

Mt colleague, Senator Ruane, will discuss some of the other provisions of the Bill. I will briefly note that the current definition of "political purposes" in the Electoral Act is something that some people have cited as problematic and in need of reform. I want to also mention the voting age, which is a crucial issue in terms of democracy and widening the franchise. We have some witnesses in the Gallery in that respect. I will quote two of those who would be immediately affected by this. These are very short lines. One person asked, "If we are responsible for future generations, why shouldn't we have a say in what our future will look like?" Another stated: "Voting and participation in democracy is our fundamental human right. Why doesn't it extend to us?" These are young, engaged people who want their say. I will pass over to my colleague now.