Michael McDowell (Independent)
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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.

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator McDowell for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. As the House will know, and as the Senator indicated, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on 31 March in a case brought by Mr. Thomas Heneghan, a graduate of the University of Limerick, against the State, seeking an extension of voting rights at Seanad university panels elections to graduates of third level institutions other than those of Trinity College Dublin and the National University of Ireland. The applicant had claimed that by not extending voting rights to other third level institutions, the State had neglected to take account of the outcome of the referendum held in 1979, as noted by Senator McDowell.

The Seanad Electoral (University Members) Act 1937 sets out the current legislative provisions governing the election of university Senators to Seanad Éireann. In the recent judgment, the Supreme Court determined that sections 6 and 7 of that Act, which provide for the election of Members of the Seanad by certain university graduates, are unconstitutional because they are not consistent with Article 18.4.2° of the Constitution. That article was inserted into the Constitution in 1979 following a referendum approving the amendment contained in the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Election of Members of Seanad Éireann by Institutions of Higher Education) Act 1979. The Supreme Court has suspended its declaration of invalidity and, therefore, the practical effect of the judgment, until 31 July 2023 in the first instance.

The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, recognises the significance of the Supreme Court ruling and the need for a comprehensive response to it. The Minister, together with the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform, Deputy Noonan, and their Department, is currently considering the judgment with a view to preparing options for consideration by the Government, which was one of Senator McDowell’s questions. What they are, I do not know yet, but they are under active consideration and I understand this work is being progressed as a matter of priority in the Department.

I do not wish to pre-empt any proposals of the Ministers or, indeed, any Government decision at this stage. Suffice to say that the judgment of the Supreme Court will be responded to in a comprehensive manner.As the Senator will understand, this Government's electoral reform priority to date has been the establishment of an electoral commission. An Coimisiún Toghcháin was established on a statutory footing on 9 February 2023. Independent of Government, it reports directly to the Oireachtas and will be central to the administration development and the protection of our democratic processes and institutions.

I thank the Senator, once again, for raising the issue. I appreciate that it is a complex matter. I acknowledge that a long period has passed since 1979 when the referendum was voted on, and that it is five weeks since the judgment. The Senator also mentioned that the graduates of five universities and five technical universities cannot vote, which, as he said, amounts to around between 1.2 million and 1.8 million people. The Senator's concerns about whether there will be postal ballot and so forth will be considered.

Michael McDowell (Independent)
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I note the Minister of State's response. I see the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, are working on proposals to bring to Cabinet. First, those proposals should be the subject of major consultation with the relevant committees of the Oireachtas, the relevant university institutions, the Electoral Commission and the wider public. Second, I emphasise that it is hugely important that we do not just simply concentrate on the university seats, which do need reform, and I have legislation before the House to implement a reform, but that we take one step further and say that those people in Ireland who do not have university degrees - people who are working in hospitals, building sites, farms and factories - are not second-class citizens. If we give the vote to 1.8 million people, who are university graduates, to vote for six seats, we owe it to the remainder of the population to give them some say in the election of the remaining 43 seats, as proposed in the Manning report.

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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As a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, I have had the privilege of always being able to vote in Seanad elections but others are not so fortunate. Some of the comments the Senator made are not without merit in that regard. I note his comments on the need for a public consultation on any proposals that are brought to Government. I will certainly bring that back to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I am aware that this issue has been prominent since the defeat of the referendum proposal to abolish the Seanad in 2013. The Senator referenced the Manning report. There have been two major reports containing recommendations on reforming the election of Members of the Seanad in recent times, the Report of the Working Group on Seanad Reform, under the chairmanship of Dr. Maurice Manning; and the Report of the Seanad Reform Implementation Group, which was chaired by the Senator. I am confident that the issue will now be addressed by Government in light of the Supreme Court ruling.