The Government has appointed a special committee to oversee a series of major reforms of the Seanad, including the possibility of having directly-elected senators.
The committee, which is chaired by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, leader of the Seanad Mary O'Rourke and members of the main Opposition parties, is to begin a series of meetings in September to examine a range of proposals for reforming the Seanad, which were presented to Government last year.
The proposals were made more than a year ago in a special report by a cross-party committee of senators, headed by Ms O'Rourke, which was presented to Government.
They include increasing the number of senators from 60 to 65, and that nearly half of the senators should be directly-elected through proportional representation. TDs senators and local authority members would continue to elect 20 senators, while the Government would continue to exercise control of the Seanad through the appointment of 10 senators.
The current allotment of three seats for graduates of Trinity College Dublin and a further three for graduates of the National University of Ireland's constituent colleges would also be changed to include all third-level institutions. This was voted for in a referendum 26 years ago, but was never implemented.
Mr Roche told The Irish Times yesterday he hoped that some of the more technical reforms in relation to procedures, could be implemented during the current Seanad, but acknowledged that major reforms would require a referendum and legislation, which was unlikely to be in place by the summer of 2007, when the next Seanad election is expected.
He does not expect a one-off package of reforms, but believes a series of reforms will emerge from the committee to be implemented over a period of time. "The discussions will I hope lead to getting cross-party support on a series of proposals, and as the proposals are forthcoming, I hope they would be introduced".
He acknowledged there could be "sticking points" where consensus could be difficult to reach.
These include reforms of the university seats, the majority of which are held by independent senators, some of whom have raised concerns that reforms could make it difficult for independent senators to be elected.
Ms O'Rourke, welcomed the new committee and said she hoped that referendums on some of the major reforms, such as directly elected senators, could be held at the next general election.
She said that legislation to reform the university seats could be introduced before that, along with technical changes to how the senate does business.
Although the Taoiseach gave his approval to the latest report, it has taken more than a year for him to establish an implementation committee.