Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We could have the human dignity alliance, we could have Aontú, there are lots of good people and good parties around. Having said that, the university constituencies provide the ground that is there to be hurled and I am very happy to have been enabled by the voters four times now, and I hope there will be a fifth, to hurl that ground, for all the flaws in the system.

I would ask the Minister to clarify a couple of things. Maybe they were already clarified in his speech; I am sorry I was delayed on the way over. Is it automatically the case that this coming election will not take place under the new system and that it cannot but be that this new system will only apply to the election after the next?

In my 17 years in the Seanad I have had lots of dealings with the National University of Ireland and I am very pleased that they are to be appointed as the chief body responsible for this registration. I have encountered nothing but competence and courtesy from the National University of Ireland and its staff. It is not that long ago that the very future of the National University of Ireland was in question. That institution has more than proved its merit and worthiness over the years. Certainly its team is more than equipped to implement this new legislation in a conscientious and effective way. I would ask, though, whether it is intended that people who are currently registered to vote on the TCD and NUI panels will be required to take a fresh step. I would think it better that people not be disenfranchised, even temporarily, by any step required by legislation or administration. It should be the case that those who are already registered on the Trinity and NUI panels would be automatically on any new register that would be established, and that the register would be built up from there, involving a proper and well-resourced Government information campaign to graduates of all the higher institutes of education to get on the register so that the vote will be maximised.Will it continue to be the case that election to this new higher education panel will continue to be by postal vote and registered post?

I want to ask about the status of graduates who are Irish citizens and received degrees over the years that were either delivered or partially delivered by a recognised university. For example, a person night have a degree that was in some way delivered by Trinity or the National University of Ireland but in some way was validated by a university elsewhere, outside of this jurisdiction. Will such Irish citizens be enfranchised or capable of being enfranchised, under the new system? Those are the issues.

I am glad to see this reform is taking place. I commend the graduate who brought us to this point at least by bringing a case that met with the approval of the Supreme Court. One could argue, having regard to the wording of the Constitution, that it was a case of judicial activism that led us to this point but perhaps it was a case of virtuous judicial activism because the people did vote to enable the widening of the constituencies in 1979. It is passing strange that that was never implemented in legislation, regardless of whether there was a constitutional obligation to so implement. I must say, and I am still thinking of that old man in Connemara, this is not where I would be starting from if I was talking about reforming either the purpose of the Seanad or the means of electing any part of same. I would hope that this, therefore, is but a temporary measure on the way to what I think would be quite an enlightened system. A list system would not compete with the Dáil, in that if you were voting on a national list system you are not getting between the people and their locally elected Deputies. You do not necessarily have to elect the Seanad at the same time as a Dáil election. It could really be an opportunity to give a more powerful and interesting Seanad into the future building on the achievements that are already there. I ask the Government to open its mind to the great possibilities that are there using a list system or otherwise.