Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Senator Moynihan's comments about the importance of protecting people’s home addresses. The Minister of State is welcome to the House. There has been much discussion about the role of the new Electoral Commission in devising these boundaries. I will not rehash what has been said. I will be tabling amendments on Committee Stage which do not relate to the schedule but to substantive procedural issues and the ways we should look to improve the process.

We should reflect on the number of Members allocated to Dáil constituencies. The number of three-seat constituencies is being increased by four. We will now have 13 three-seat constituencies. Frankly, the Electoral Commission’s terms of reference, as set out in section 57 of the Electoral Reform Act 2022, were extremely short-sighted. Specifically, the provision in section 57(2)(b) that “each constituency shall return 3, 4 or 5 members” lacked foresight in respect of population growth and our broader goal of electing a more diverse Parliament. There were clear and concrete calls for the abolition of three-seat constituencies and allowing six-seat constituencies, but the opportunity to do this was not taken. Forthcoming research for Women for Election by Claire McGing notes that PR-STV in Irish general elections has strongly influenced candidate selection and party strategies and has had a gendered effect. She notes that while constituency magnitude does not influence women’s Dáil representation to the extent that political science literature suggests, the effect is strongly mediated by individual political party strategies. The report finds that three-seat constituencies are less favourable to women than those electing four and five Members. Ms McGing concluded that the research to be carried out by the Electoral Commission on six-seat constituencies must have a strong gender lens.As the gender quota thresholds rise to 40% at the next general election, parties should use larger constituencies as an enabling tool for effective quota implementation, and simultaneously ensure that new women are selected to run in winnable seats and not simply to make up numbers alongside more favoured candidates. Research on constituency size needs to look at other issues, including diversity of political views, diversity of race and ethnicity, diversity in respect of disability, diversity in social class, LGB diversity and diversity in political parties. These Houses still do not reflect or represent the experience of many and this needs to change. We need an electoral system which does not reward ingenuity in vote management, but serves as a vehicle for the expression of collective views and experiences of the public we serve. Working-class voices, Traveller voices, disabled voices, ethnic minority voices and trans voices are too few in these Houses and in many cases completely missing from them.

On Committee Stage I will table an amendment on another issue that arose in the Dáil, that is the requirement for candidates home addresses. In the same vein as Senator Moynihan, I note that there has been much talk in recent months about safety in public life, yet we still require candidates to disclose where they live. Not only are there safety concerns in this regard, there are also issues about privacy. I urge the Minister of State to amend the current requirement before the upcoming elections take place, perhaps with the requirement for Dáil candidates that the constituency a candidate lives in is named, but the home address is not listed.

I may raise more issues on Committee Stage, but the final one I raise today is the fact that we are reforming both Dáil and European constituencies but are yet, after many years of delay by successive Governments, to implement meaningful reform in this House and a constituency franchise. The Minister has brought proposals to the Cabinet to legislate in light of the Supreme Court ruling on the seventh amendment to the Constitution. On the basis of the information in the public domain, however, it seems the Government is opting for a minimalist approach that is not true to the spirit of either the 1979 referendum or the 2013 referendum. The Seanad Bill 2020, which was sponsored by my colleagues, Senators Higgins and McDowell, is agreed cross-party legislation, which would give every citizen a vote in Seanad elections regardless of whether they have a third level qualification or not. I urge the Minister of State, between now and Committee Stage, to reflect on the issues I raised today. The Civil Engagement Group has engaged throughout the process of the establishment of the Electoral Commission and we will make submissions to the commission research programme, but we also need engagement from the Minister of State on those amendments between now and Committee Stage.