Seanad report:Former Seanad government chief whip Pat Moylan (FF) was accorded a rare parliamentary accolade yesterday when he was unanimously elected Cathaoirleach of the Seanad. Mr Moylan's nomination was proposed by Government leader in the House Donie Cassidy and seconded by Dan Boyle (GP).
On the day on which the 23rd Seanad sat for the first time, several speakers emphasised the need for reform of the second house of the Oireachtas. At the outset of the proceedings, Shane Ross (Ind) took temporary possession of the chair, as the longest-serving member of the House, having been first elected 26 years ago.
Mr Ross stressed the importance of the House seizing for itself a new role in the parliamentary process, while acknowledging that this would present a particular difficulty for the membership of an institution that had remained basically unchanged since 1937.
The problem was that members of the Seanad were, in his view, rightly seen as the product of the spoils of political war. Very often they were viewed as the products of patronage or of elitist elections.
Mr Ross said he was referring to all elements of the Seanad in that respect. They were seen as political insiders of the worst sort. "We are, I think, very often rightly seen as being the beneficiaries of outrageous political patronage. That is something, I think, we should tackle if we're serious about Seanad reform."
An important new function could be the scrutinising of proposed appointments to political bodies. Patronage was the curse of Irish political life.
Those on the university benches had been accused of being elected by unfair, discriminating and elitist methods. He believed that that was a perfectly fair criticism. There was no justification for certain third-level institutions having the right to elect senators while others did not have that right.
Mr Cassidy assured the House that under his stewardship Seanad reform would be looked at, particularly in the area of the university panels.
Mr Cassidy said that while the vocational panels had had a 99.7 per cent turn-out in the recent election, the university panels had recorded voting returns of only 34 or 35 per cent. This made him wonder how democratic they were.