It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members senators (seanadóirí in Irish, singular: seanadóir). Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by various methods. Its powers are much weaker than those of the Dáil and it can only delay laws with which it disagrees, rather than veto them outright. It can introduce new legislation. Since its establishment, it has been located in Leinster House.
Forty-three elected from five special panels of nominees (known as vocational panels) by an electorate consisting of TDs (members of Dáil Éireann), outgoing senators and members of city and county councils. Nomination is restrictive for the panel seats with only Oireachtas members and designated nominating bodies entitled to nominate. Each of the five panels consists, in theory, of individuals possessing special knowledge of, or experience in, one of five specific fields. In practice the nominees are party members, often, though not always, failed or aspiring Dáil candidates:
Seven seats on the Administrative Panel: Public administration and social services (including the voluntary sector).
Eleven seats on the Labour Panel: Labour (organised or otherwise).
The general election for the Seanad must occur not later than 90 days after the dissolution of Dáil Éireann. The election occurs under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (in the panel constituencies each vote counts as 1000, allowing fractions of votes to be more easily transferred). Membership is open to all Irish citizens over 21, but a senator cannot also be a member of Dáil Éireann. However, as stated above, nomination to vocational panel seats is restricted; nomination in the university constituencies requires signatures of 10 graduates.
In the case of vacancies in the vocational panels, the electorate in the by-election consists of Oireachtas members only.[4] Vacancies to the university seats are filled by the full electorate in that constituency until March 2025, after which vacancies will be filled through a list system.
The powers of Seanad Éireann are modelled loosely on those of the British House of Lords. It is intended to play an advisory and revising role rather than to be an equal of the popularly elected Dáil. While notionally every Act of the Oireachtas must receive assent of both chambers, in practice the Seanad can only delay rather than veto decisions of the Dáil. The fact that 11 senators are appointed by the Taoiseach usually ensures that the Government, which must have the support of the Dáil, enjoys at least a plurality in the Seanad. The constitution imposes the following specific limitations on the powers of the Seanad:
If a bill approved by Dáil Éireann has not received the assent of the Seanad within 90 days, then the Dáil may, within a further 180 days, resolve that the measure is "deemed" to have been approved by the Seanad. This has only occurred twice since 1937, once in 1959 when the Seanad rejected the Third Amendment to the Constitution Bill 1958 (the amendment proposed by this bill was, in the event, rejected in the subsequent referendum) and again in 1964 when they rejected the Pawnbrokers Bill 1964. In both instances the Dáil passed the requisite motion deeming the legislation to have been passed.[5]
A money bill, such as the budget, may be deemed to have been approved by the Seanad after 21 days.
In the case of an urgent bill, the time that must have expired before it can be deemed to have been approved by the Seanad may be abridged by the Government (cabinet) with the concurrence of the President (this does not apply to bills to amend the constitution).
The Constitution does, however, grant to the Seanad certain means by which it may defend its prerogatives against an overly zealous Dáil:
The Seanad may, by a resolution, ask the president to appoint a Committee of Privileges to adjudicate as to whether or not a particular bill is a money bill. The president may, however, refuse this request. This procedure has not been initiated since the re-establishment of the Seanad under the current Constitution in 1937.[6]
If a majority of senators and at least one-third of the members of the Dáil present a petition to the President stating that a bill is of great "national importance" the president can decline to sign the bill until it has been 'referred to the people'. This means that the president can refuse to sign it until it has been approved either in an ordinary referendum or by the Dáil after it has reassembled after a general election.
Select committee on Investigations, Oversight and Petitions
Select committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education
Select committee on Justice, Defence and Equality
Historical origins
Precursors
The first parliamentary upper house in Ireland was the House of Lords of the Parliament of Ireland, beginning in 1297. Like its British counterpart, this house consisted of hereditary nobles and bishops. After the abolition of the Irish Parliament under the Act of Union of 1800 no parliament existed in Ireland until the twentieth century.
In 1919 Irish nationalists established a legislature called Dáil Éireann but this body was unicameral and so had no upper house. In 1920 the Parliament of Southern Ireland was established by British law with an upper house called the Senate. The Senate of Southern Ireland consisted of a mixture of Irish peers and government appointees. The Senate convened in 1921 but was boycotted by Irish nationalists and so never became fully operational. It was formally abolished with the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 but a number of its members were soon appointed to the new Free State senate.
The name Seanad Éireann was first used as the title of the upper house of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State. The first Seanad consisted of a mixture of members appointed by the President of the Executive Council and members indirectly elected by the Dáil, and W. T. Cosgrave agreed to use his appointments to grant extra representation to the state's Protestant minority. The procedures for election of senators were amended before the first Seanad election by the Constitution (Amendment No. 1) Act 1925. It was intended that eventually the entire membership of the Seanad would be directly elected by the public. However, after only one election, in 1925, where 19 Seanad members were elected in one district using STV, this system was abandoned in favour of a form of indirect election.
Initially casual vacancies in the Seanad were filled by vote of the remaining members. However this system was replaced under the Constitution (Amendment No. 11) Act 1929 by filling of vacancies by vote of both Dáil and Seanad, the system that continues today for panel members. The Free State Seanad was abolished entirely in 1936 after it delayed some Government proposals for constitutional changes.
Constitution of Ireland (since 1937)
The modern Seanad Éireann was established by the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, and first sat on 25 January 1939. When the 1937 constitution was adopted, it was decided to preserve the titles of Oireachtas for the two houses of the legislature, in conjunction with the President, Dáil Éireann for the lower house, and Seanad Éireann for the upper house, the latter having been used during the Irish Free State. The new Seanad was considered to be the direct successor of the Free State Seanad and so the first Seanad convened under the new constitution was referred to as the "Second Seanad".
The new system of vocational panels used to nominate candidates for the Seanad was inspired by the corporatist Roman Catholic social teaching of the 1930s and, in particular, the 1931 papal encyclical Quadragesimo anno. In that document, Pope Pius XI argued that the Marxist concept of class conflict should be replaced with a vision of social order based on the co-operation and interdependence of society's various vocational groups.[7][8]
Calls for reform
Since 1928, twelve separate official reports have been published on reform of the Seanad.[9] In the 1980s, the Progressive Democrats called for its abolition; however, in government, members of the party were nominated to the Seanad by the Taoiseach. The post-1937 body has been criticised on a number of grounds, including claims that it is weak and dominated by the Government of the day. There are also allegations of patronage in the selection of its members, with senators often being close allies of the Taoiseach or candidates who have failed to be elected to the Dáil. Many senators have subsequently been elected as TDs.
Irish universities have a long tradition of electing independent candidates. Some, like the pressure group Graduate Equality, argue that the franchise for electing university senators should be extended to the graduates of all third level institutions. Others believe that this does not go far enough and that at least some portion of the Seanad should be directly elected by all adult citizens. Calls have also been made for the Seanad to be used to represent Irish emigrants or the people of Northern Ireland. In 1999 the Reform Movement called for some of the Taoiseach's nominations to be reserved for members of the Irish-British minority, and other minorities such as members of the Travelling Community and recently arrived immigrants.
Graduate franchise
The Seventh Amendment in 1979 altered the provisions of Article 18.4 to allow for a redistribution of the university seats to any other institutes of higher education in the state, although it took until October 2024 for legislation to be put in place to provide for expansion of the franchise.
In 2019, Tomás Heneghan, a graduate of University of Limerick, challenged the limitation of voting rights to graduates of National University of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, and to Oireachtas and local authority members.[10] The case was heard by a three-judge division of the High Court in 2021.[11] The challenge was rejected by the court later that year.[12] On 31 March 2023, following a direct appeal on the point of university graduates voting, the seven-judge Supreme Court ruled in Heneghan's favour and struck down the 1937 law limiting the right to vote to NUI and Trinity College graduates.[13] However, the court suspended its ruling to 31 July 2023 to allow the state to determine how it would institute the necessary changes to the law. In a statement, through his legal representatives at the Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC), Heneghan said he hoped the Oireachtas would act speedily to extend the vote to everyone, regardless of educational or socio-economic background. This would be in line with the 2018 report of the cross-party Seanad Reform Implementation Group, chaired by Senator Michael McDowell.[14] On 26 July 2023, the Supreme Court gave a second ruling, allowing the Oireachtas up to 31 May 2025 to legislate for the expansion of the electorate.[15]
In September 2024, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage published the Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill 2024, which was passed by the Seanad on 16 October without a vote, and the Dáil on 23 October without amendment. The legislation was signed by President Michael D Higgins on 29 October 2024. The new law abolishes the two three-seat National University of Ireland and University of Dublin constituencies, and creates a new six-seat Higher Education constituency in which all degree-holders from third level state institutions of higher education will be entitled to vote at the next Seanad general election after 21 March 2025. The legislation also replaces Seanad by-elections for the six seats with a list system mirroring the process used in European Parliament elections and increases the number of nominations a prospective candidate needs from 10 to 60 registered electors or the payment of a deposit of €1,800.
53 members of the Dáil voted against the legislation, including Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit–Solidarity, Independent Ireland and a number of independent TDs, with Sinn Féin TD Denise Mitchell telling the Dáil "the Government has missed a huge opportunity with this Bill. It has taken what the Supreme Court found and interpreted it in the narrowest of ways...It is the Government's call, and the record will show that it was on the wrong side and acting in the interests of the elites and not in the interests of democracy" and the Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O'Callaghan saying "I urge the Government at this late stage to withdraw these tweaks and as quickly as possible in the next Oireachtas to bring forward meaningful change and stop excluding such a large part of our population from their democratic say simply on the basis of who holds a degree. It is completely and utterly indefensible."[16] 72 TDs voted in favour of the legislation, including Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party, and a number of Independent TDs, including former Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick, former Progressive Democrats TD Noel Grealish, former Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry, and Cathal Berry.[17]
On 18 December 2024, the first register for the new six-seat Seanad Higher Education Constituency opened with a new website (SeanadVoter.ie) for eligible voters to register through.[18]
In October 2009, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny stated his intention that a Fine Gael government would abolish the Seanad, and along with reducing the number of TDs by 20, it would "save an estimated €150m over the term of a Dáil."[19] During the 2011 election campaign, Labour, Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party also supported abolition of the Seanad,[20][21][22] while Fianna Fáil supported a referendum on the issue.[23] The programme of the Fine Gael–Labour coalition, which came to power at the election, sought to abolish the Seanad as part of a broader programme of constitutional reform,[24] but lost a referendum on the matter in October 2013 by 51.7% to 48.3%.
^Albert, Richard; Baraggia, Antonia; Fasone, Cristina (2019). Constitutional Reform of National Legislatures: Bicameralism under Pressure. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN978-1-78897-864-4.
^"Programme for Government"(PDF). Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. March 2010. p. 17. Archived(PDF) from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
