Four candidates in the Seanad election last night welcomed a commitment from the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, that he will address the issue of Seanad reform following concerns over inaccuracies in the electoral registers.
Linda O'Shea Farren, Brendan Price and Martin Hogan, who are contesting the National University of Ireland constituency, and Seán O'Connor, who is seeking election for Dublin University, met the Minister yesterday to voice their concerns.
The four candidates said that as a former Seanad Éireann candidate himself, the Minister said he recognised the concerns in relation to the management of the registers and the difficulties of working with these registers in election campaigns.
A spokesman for the Minister said the meeting was private but that Mr Gormley is committed to examining Seanad reform.
The candidates said the Minister said he would assign a senior official in his department to oversee the development of an action plan for implementation of Seanad reform in relation to the six university seats.
They said he also agreed to consider sending a representative to observe the counts that are scheduled to take place for the university seats on July 24th.
The delegation presented the Minister with an expert report, commissioned by Mr O'Connor, that revealed inaccuracies of up to 57 per cent in the Trinity register and 67 per cent in the NUI register.
Meanwhile, Ivana Bacik, an Independent candidate on the Dublin University panel, last night criticised Mr Gormley for what she claimed was the "handpicking" of a number of candidates for the meeting.
However, a spokesman for Mr Gormley said yesterday's meeting took place at the request of the four candidates.
"The Minister is happy to talk about the issue of Seanad electoral reform with any party and will meet Ivana Bacik to discuss her concerns too."