Greens to propose Seanad election reform

According to tomorrow’s Sunday Business Post, Environment Minister John Gormley will soon present a memo to Cabinet with a view to reforming the election process for Senators.

The article doesn’t give too much detail on his plans, but the crux of his proposal is the suggestion to make the majority of Senators directly elected by the public, and not just those with third level education.

While cynics might point to this as another in a long line of proposed reforms the article (by Niamh Connolly, by the way) reminds us that the Government is on track to lose its Seanad majority and end up with a 30-30 seat split with the opposition.

With the Seanad no longer ensuring the Government as comfortable a ride as it has before, the status quo will be far less appealing than ever and the debate could actually move forward somewhat as a result.

Of course this could just be smoke and mirrors by Gormley - as Connolly’s featured interview with the minister points out he has a difficult task of appeasing the one-third of the Green Party’s members that voted against him, and showing that he’s at least trying to stick to the party’s previous convictions will go a long way in doing that.