Paul Hosford: Seanad is not representative of Irish society and needs to be reformed

The Seanad elections are here again, but with reform efforts stagnant and public engagement low, Ireland’s second chamber struggles to find relevance

Prior to the 2013 referendum on its abolition, then taoiseach Enda Kenny described the Seanad as an ‘ineffective, powerless body’ that was impossible to reform, before acknowledging the electorate’s vote in favour of reform. Picture: Laurent Gillieron/Keystone

DO you remember the political wallop that Enda Kenny received?

The Mayoman’s turn of phrase was legendary, but the term will have outlasted its provenance to many.

A reminder: “Sometimes in politics you get a wallop in an electoral process,” said Mr Kenny, but a decent quiz question could be wrung from asking just what the wallop was.

For those of you who lived it, the answer is readily available: It was of course the then taoiseach’s reaction to the government’s loss of a referendum on the abolition of the Seanad, over 11 years ago in late 2013.

The referendum itself came at a time of heightened public scrutiny of every cent spent on the political process. Fine Gael and the Labour Party, with the largest majority for a government coalition ever, sold the idea as a €20m saving that came with the added bonus of fewer politicians. It was called a power grab by Democracy Matters, while Fianna Fáil demanded “real reform” of the upper house. For weeks in the run-up, the 32nd Amendment to the Constitution Bill was debated and swung back and forth in opinion polls. Indeed, the latest opinion poll held in September showed a significant lead for the yes campaign, but with a large amount of undecideds and, on the day, the measure was rejected by about 40,000 votes, with 51.73% of voters opting to reject the idea of getting rid of the Seanad.

Having said just a day before the poll that the Seanad was “an ineffective, powerless body” that was impossible to reform, in the days following, Mr Kenny said he was open to the message from the electorate that reform of the chamber was wanted.

That reform has, a decade later, completely fallen off the political and public agenda, though the outgoing government did assent to one expansion of the franchise for Seanad elections, albeit because of a Supreme Court ruling on a 1979 referendum.

The move will create a new six-seat “Higher Education” constituency for electing university members, replacing the existing NUI and University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin) constituencies. The bill will extend the franchise for electing university members of Seanad Éireann to graduates of designated institutions of higher education who hold Irish citizenship. The changes arise from a Supreme Court ruling on constitutionality on how university members are elected to the Seanad.

However, that change won’t be in place until May this year and it could be 2030 before the new constituency actually votes, so you could say that reform has been limited ahead of the upcoming Seanad elections

This week, you may have received a Seanad voting ballot or heard that the nominations deadline had passed. Or you likely didn’t. Those ballots only landed in the post to those who graduated from NUI institutions or Trinity College Dublin and the vast majority of people don’t exactly get excited about the Seanad elections, not least right after the Christmas break.

However, there will be a Seanad election at the end of this month and it is likely that the show will roll on without much talk of reforming the chamber, which is always stacked to provide a government majority, given the voting system with ballots given to current councillors, TDs, and outgoing Seanad members.

In the days following the election, the Government moved swiftly to install Anne Rabbitte, Alan Farrell, and Joe Flaherty as senators, despite them having lost their Dáil seats in the election. The move allowed for the trio to vote in the upcoming election, with all three contesting.

Across the parties, numerous politicians who did not win seats in November’s Dáil election will contest the Seanad poll, seeking a political mulligan of sorts. Many of those will use their position as full-time Oireachtas members to build profile and local operations capable of taking a seat at the next general election — just ask the 11 senators who did the same in November if it can be an advantage.

That is not to say that those elected were not deserving or serious parliamentarians who will be an asset to the Dáil. Marie Sherlock is a consistent advocate for workers and both Catherine Ardagh and Emer Currie for families of children with additional needs. The Seanad is a breeding ground for excellent contributors to Irish politics and life. Senators Alice Mary Higgins, Paul Gavan, Rebecca Moynihan, Mary Seery Kearney, and Mark Daly among others have all made important interventions in Irish society or legislation in the 26th Seanad — there is no question of their bona fides as public representatives.

However, it is worth questioning the structure around how they all end up there. Seanad voting is so far removed from the general populace that it makes the chamber’s workings themselves a mere afterthought — if even that — to many

In 2015, the Manning Report was published and pinpointed a key problem with the Seanad: Many feel that its electoral system leaves it devoid of legitimacy, the mandate of a small number of TDs, senators, or councillors not seen as enough. To remedy this, it suggested that 30 members be elected by popular vote and that the panel system — representing the interests of labour, culture, agriculture, industry, and public life — be voted on by the public, who could best identify which panel they wanted to vote on. The working group wrote that it “accepts the widely expressed view that in its membership profile Seanad Éireann lacks a distinctive identity, too closely reflects that of Dáil Éireann and fails to realise the constitutional ambition to create a largely vocational chamber which would represent a diversity of views, minority voices, and specialist experience” and said that this could be remedied by opening up voting.

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Ms Higgins and others, including Michael McDowell, have introduced legislation since 2016 which envisages universal suffrage, but it was telling that there was minimal mention of the issue in the manifestos of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael last year. Fianna Fáil commits to implementing the third-level expansion bill and “strengthening the Seanad’s role in assessing EU secondary legislation and North-South issues”, while Fine Gael’s doesn’t mention the chamber.

A Sinn Féin idea, however, could be transformational. It proposes running the Seanad and Dáil elections at the same time. This would mean that candidates for the Seanad were making it their priority, not a fallback plan should they not reach the Dáil, which has an unintended consequence of returning a Seanad that is not representative of Irish society. The idea of using Taoiseach’s nominees to ensure a diverse milieu is noble, but in 2020 the coalition used its 11 picks to appoint 10 sitting councillors split across Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Greens. The lone non-party pick was Eileen Flynn, who became the first Traveller to sit in the Oireachtas and whose perspective has been crucial in many debates. The Seanad elections will take up some space in the political agenda over the coming weeks, but will likely not break through to the wider public consciousness. And it will be ever thus until the chamber is reformed.