Mr Ruairi Kiely (FF) was elected Cathaoirleach of the Seanad by 34 votes to five - the five were cast for the only other candidate Mr Brendan Ryan (Lab). Fine Gael and the Independent members did not oppose Mr Kiely's election. The five Labour members voted for their party's nominee.
Earlier, when the new House convened, the acting chairman, Mr Shane Ross, the longest continuing serving member, made a strong appeal for reform to make the House more relevant.
He said there were problems to be resolved which involved self-criticism and self-sacrifice. The two main criticisms were that the Seanad was in the main a vehicle for political patronage and that there was no voice in the chamber for minorities.
Making his case, Mr Ross said that two of the most significant parties which had been returned to the Dáil at the last election, the PDs and the Greens, had no elected member in the Seanad.
"The uncomfortable truth is that this is a self-perpetuating body and that we are a body which is elected by politicians for politicians. That is something which I think we should face squarely over the next three or four years."
The vocational element of the Seanad, as conceived by Eamon de Valera, had in reality gone from the House.
One had only to look at what was happening outside the House to see how the vocational interest had been usurped or stolen by other people.
"I particularly point at the social partners, because here we have an industrial and commercial panel of the Seanad represented in fact outside here by the business and social partnership talks."
Mr Ross said he would like to see Dáil and Seanad elections held on the same day, so that aspiring candidates would have to opt for one house or the other. Voting should not be restricted, he believed, to members of the Oireachtas and local councils. Also, the right of the Taoiseach to nominate members should be abolished.