When can we expect to see Seanad election reform approved 30 years ago?

WE have heard a lot about respecting the will of the people as expressed in the recent referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Yet last week marked one year on from the Seanad election count and next year marks the 30th anniversary of a referendum supporting the extension of the franchise to all third-level graduates as part of a process of overall Seanad reform.

Yet we’ve again seen no concrete moves for reform from another new Government: no deadlines, no timetable for action and no legislation published for consideration.

One has to ask when a government can’t do the simple, the straightforward, whether the public can be expected to have confidence that it will have the courage to tackle the difficult and the challenging.

Above all to do what is in the public interest, even if it is not popular to do so.

As one of the 24 candidates for the NUI seats last year, I felt there was a palpable desire that the franchise finally would be extended.

Indeed, there was a desire that all Irish citizens should have a role in electing the Seanad.

All candidates spoke in favour of it. Yet since the conclusion of the election process not one member of the Oireachtas has acted. There is nothing to prevent any one of those elected as NUI Seanad members, or the wider Oireachtas membership, from seeking to introduce legislation to give expression to that referendum result from three decades ago.

That they haven’t acted shows that, like the Government, they are interested only in talking about respect for the voice of the people and not acting on it.

Daniel Sullivan

67 Abbeyvale

Corbally

Limerick