Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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111. To ask the Taoiseach his plans to reform Seanad Éireann within the lifetime of the 33rd Dáil. [24690/20]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Seanad plays an important role as part of our legislature under the Constitution. In a democracy, any reform of the legislature must enjoy the confidence of the public as well as legislators. In this regard the Government is committed as a priority to the establishment of an Electoral Commission to enhance the governance of our democratic electoral processes.

The all-party Seanad Reform Implementation Group published its report in December 2018 including proposals on implementation of the 2015 Manning Report. The report’s recommendations were not unanimously endorsed by the group’s members.

While there was some brief consideration of that report by the Houses in late 2019, if further examination of its proposals by the current members of the Houses were to lead to a consensus around some of the report’s recommendations, such a consensus would provide a basis for their implementation.