Seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland
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The Seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Election of Members of Seanad Éireann by Institutions of Higher Education) Act 1979 is an
amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. They ...
to the
Constitution of Ireland The Constitution of Ireland ( ga, Bunreacht na hÉireann, ) is the constitution, fundamental law of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. The constitution, based on a system of representative democra ...
that provides that the procedure for the election of six members of the
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
in the
university constituencies A university constituency is a constituency, used in elections to a legislature, that represents the members of one or more universities rather than residents of a geographical area. These may or may not involve plural voting, in which voters ar ...
could be altered by law. It was approved by referendum on 5 July 1979 and signed into law on 3 August of the same year.


Background

In the new Seanad created by the Constitution adopted in 1937, six seats were elected by universities: three by the
National University A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state. Some national universities are associated with national cultural or po ...
and three by
Dublin University The University of Dublin ( ga, Ollscoil Átha Cliath), corporately designated the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin, is a university located in Dublin, Ireland. It is the degree-awarding body for Trinity College Dubl ...
(or
Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...
). The government in 1979 proposed splitting up the
National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) ( ga, Ollscoil na hÉireann) is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called ''university college, constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under t ...
(NUI) and creating separate universities in Cork, Dublin, and Galway. It was concerned that the outline of seats in the Constitution could act as a bar to this proposal, or that the new proposed universities would lose any representation. The constitutional amendment allowed a redistribution of the six university seats between these universities and any other institutions of higher education in the State. It also ensured that the section could not be invoked to prohibit the dissolution of either of the named universities.


Changes to the text

*Alterations to Article 18.4 (new text is in bold):


Oireachtas debate

The Seventh amendment was introduced by Minister for Education John Wilson for the Fianna Fáil government. He described the purpose of the bill as: It was not opposed by the opposition parties
Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil ...
and the Labour Party and the Bill passed final stages in the Dáil on 23 May. It passed all stages in the Seanad on 31 May and proceeded to a referendum on 5 July.


Result

The referendum was held on the same day as the Sixth Amendment, which dealt with the validity of certain child adoption orders, and was approved on a low turnout by 552,600 (92.4%) votes in favour to 45,484 (7.6%) against. Note: For this referendum and the Sixth Amendment held on the same day, the constituencies used were each county and
county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...
(city), which were deemed under section 2 of the Referendum (Amendment) Act 1979 to be constituencies for the purpose of the poll. Usually in Irish referendums the
Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland read ...
general election constituencies are used.


Consequential changes

, no change has been made to the distribution or electorate of the six university seats. The NUI was not disbanded, although the Universities Act 1997 upgraded its "constituent colleges" to "constituent universities". Other institutes of higher education have increased in number and status, with the NIHEs and
DIT DIT or dit may refer to: People * Dit name, an alternative family name, e.g., in French Canadian historical traditions * Dit Clapper (1907–1978), Canadian ice hockey player Information technology * Directory information tree * dit (unit), a ...
of 1979 gaining
university status A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
in 1989 and 2019 respectively; graduation from none of them confers a vote in Seanad elections. The Fine Gael–Labour government returned after the 2011 election proposed to abolish the Seanad in its entirety. After the proposal was rejected by referendum in 2013, the government agreed instead to consider reforming the Seanad. In February 2014, it published a draft Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill, which would create a single six-seat constituency in which anyone with a degree-level qualification from a recognised institution would be eligible to vote. In 2015, the Working Group on Seanad Reform appointed by the government issued its report (the "
Manning Manning (a.k.a. Mannion, Manning) is a family name. Origin and meaning Manning is from an old Norse word — manningi — meaning a brave or valiant man; and one of the first forms of the name was Mannin; another cartography was Mannyg ...
report"), which endorsed the 2014 bill but also recommended that 30 of the 43
Vocational panel A vocational panel ( ga, rolla gairm bheatha) is any of five lists of candidates from which are elected a total of 43 of the 60 senators in Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (parliament) of Ireland. Each panel corresponds to a gr ...
senators should be
directly elected Direct election is a system of choosing political officeholders in which the voters directly cast ballots for the persons or political party that they desire to see elected. The method by which the winner or winners of a direct election are cho ...
, and that university graduate voters would have to choose between voting in the university constituency or one of the five panel constituencies. The Fine Gael-led government returned after the 2016 election made implementing the 2015 report a priority.
Simon Coveney Simon Coveney (born 16 June 1972) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment since December 2022 and Deputy Leader of Fine Gael since 2017. He previously served as Minister for Foreign Affai ...
, answering a Dáil question in July 2016 as Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, said implementation of the 1979 amendment would be "further considered in the context of he 2015 report… and having regard to the work of the last government on he 2014 draft bill In February 2018,
Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...
Leo Varadkar Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to De ...
proposed to establish an Oireachtas
special committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
to meet for eight months and "develop specific proposals to legislate" implementation of the 2015 report; he added, "The university panels should be retained as recommended. They have served us well, although they should be reformed to implement the result of the 1979 referendum and open up the franchise to graduates of all higher level institutions of education." In the 2020 general election, the manifestos of
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
and the
Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
promised to implement the Manning report. The resulting Fianna Fáil–Fine Gael–Green coalition endorsed Seanad reform but prioritised the creation of an
Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
. Fianna Fáil senators introduced a
private member's bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...
, the Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill 2020, which would create a single university constituency encompassing "All Universities in the State, and Institutions of Higher Education in the State as provided for by the Minister ", with the franchise extended to holders of degrees or diplomas accredited by
Quality and Qualifications Ireland Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI; ga, Dearbhú Cáilíochta agus Cáilíochtaí Éireann) is the national agency responsible for qualifications in Ireland. It was established by the Oireachtas in 2012 following the amalgamation of the N ...
. The
second stage A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage i ...
debate was adjourned in November 2020 at the request of
Malcolm Noonan Malcolm Noonan (born September 1966) is an Irish Green Party (Ireland), Green Party politician who has served as a Minister of State (Ireland), Minister of State since July 2020 and as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Carlow–Kilkenny (Dáil consti ...
, the
Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...
for electoral reform, who suggested that gaps in the bill's provisions could best be filled in by waiting for the Electoral Commission due by the end of 2021. On 31 March 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that the Seventh Amendment provided for the mandatory expansion of the franchise rather than a discretionary government power to extend the franchise. The court suspended its decision to 31 July 2023. The case had been dismissed by the High Court in November 2021, however the applicant, Tomás Heneghan, appealed that decision directly to the Supreme Court.


See also

*
Politics of the Republic of Ireland Ireland is a parliamentary, representative democratic republic and a member state of the European Union. While the head of state is the popularly elected President of Ireland, it is a largely ceremonial position, with real political power bei ...
*
History of the Republic of Ireland The Irish state came into being in 1919 as the 32 county Irish Republic. In 1922, having seceded from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, it became the Irish Free State. It comprised 32 counties until ...
*
University constituency A university constituency is a constituency, used in elections to a legislature, that represents the members of one or more universities rather than residents of a geographical area. These may or may not involve plural voting, in which voters ar ...
* 1979 Irish constitutional referendums *
Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland are only possible by way of referendum. A proposal to amend the Constitution of Ireland must first be approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament), then submitted to a referendum, and finally s ...


References


External links


Seventh Amendment of the Constitution (Election of Members of Seanad Éireann by Institutions of Higher Education) Act 1979
{{Seanad Éireann 1979 in Irish law 1979 in Irish politics 1979 referendums 07 07 University constituencies in the Republic of Ireland Suffrage referendums July 1979 events in Europe Amendment, 07 Amendment, 07 Electoral reform referendums