Students’ union wants all third-level graduates to be able to vote for Seanad

THE Government should fast-track legislation to give all third-level graduates a vote in Seanad elections, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) said last night.

Six members of the upper house of the Oireachtas are elected by third-level graduates, three by Trinity College Dublin alumni and three by graduates of the four National University of Ireland colleges in Dublin (UCD), Cork, Galway and Maynooth.

Despite 93% approval for a 1979 referendum seeking to extend the vote to graduates of all higher education institutions, no subsequent Government has introduced the legislation required to implement the change.

The matter forms part of a major report, on Seanad reform, being considered by Environment Minister Dick Roche.

But USI president Tony McDonnell said the minister should not need to consider this in line with other reforms which may require constitutional amendments.

“The power to change the Constitution has been there for almost 30 years. There are tens of thousands of graduates of University of Limerick, Dublin City University and the institutes of technology who are being disenfranchised by the lack of action on this,” he said.

He said the imbalance led to a public perception that the Seanad’s university panel was undemocratic.

“The system allows for very little vocational diversity among those electing these senators. The graduates of NUI colleges and Trinity are mainly from the arts and commerce faculties, whereas the excluded colleges have more people from information technology and other areas,” he said.

“There is also a lack of socio-economic diversity as students from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to go to institutes of technology.”

Seanad leader Mary O’Rourke has publicly backed the campaign to extend the franchise to all third-level graduates but the legislation needed would have to come from Mr Roche, whose department has responsibility for the electoral process.