John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of points on these amendments. Regarding amendment No. 2 from Senators Ruane, Black and Flynn on the inclusion of additional institutions, as a graduate of the University of Limerick, UL, I want to see the expansion of the university panels. I also support the element in this regard concerning such universities as established or that may be established under the Technological Universities Act 2018. We have graduates in my county of Waterford that have not been able to vote on university panels. This is wrong, in the same way as it is for graduates of UL. An attempt is being made to rectify this situation. We must be fair to the people who have put work into this Bill in good faith to try to make a genuine attempt to improve the election processes for this House.

This is not to say that other areas do not need to be addressed and considered. This is one specific area, though, where an attempt is being made to consider existing issues. I am not certain whether I would go beyond the technological universities and the institutes of technology, as is contained in this proposal, but we are here to debate the merits and demerits of this possibility. The expansion of the franchise to the technological universities, the institutes of technology and those universities that have not been included heretofore is the right way to go. The courts have had their say on this issue.To be fair to Senator Byrne, there is a genuine attempt to address that issue. My comments relate mainly to amendment No. 2.