Irish universities win equal status in senate franchise extension

Long-awaited reforms to one of the last remaining graduate-only elections in the world mean some Irish institutions and students will no longer feel like “second-class citizens”, according to scholars.

Graduates of the National University of Ireland (NUI) institutions and Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have long voted for three seats each in the two university constituencies in the Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Irish parliament.

Despite landslide support in a 1979 referendum, proposals for reform have been shelved at Leinster House for decades – until a Supreme Court ruling in 2023 triggered the creation of a new six-seat constituency that will be open to all higher education graduates.

Poll close on 29 January for the last time using the old system, before all future Seanad elections switch to the new constituency.

“It’s not that it was ever this massive bone of public contention, but at the same time, it was often pointed to, in recent years in particular, as being very unfair,” said Laura Cahillane, associate professor of law at the University of Limerick and a TCD graduate.

“Speaking to graduates of UL…they’re delighted because it feels like the second-class citizen label has been taken away, that there’s no difference now between graduates from one university or another, that everyone gets the opportunity to be on the franchise.

“But I think from the perspective of ordinary citizens, outside of the university franchise, they’re probably not all that bothered about it.”

There has been criticism from some corners that the Irish state’s information campaign has not been effective enough in spreading the news about the new constituency.

Others counter that more drastic changes are needed to the largely ineffectual upper house, which makes up the Oireachtas alongside the directly elected Dáil Éireann and the presidency.

David Farrell, professor of politics at UCD, said that while modern universities will welcome the change, it was more of a “tidying-up exercise” than genuine reform to the Seanad, which is seen as a “a rather expensive little playhouse”.

“It’s a convenient place for the mainstream parties to park candidates who have failed to be Dáil deputies or to try and nurture new talents through the system,” he said.

But he said the small three-seat constituencies have historically tended to produce interesting senators, including serving president Michael Higgins and former president Mary Robinson.

“By now merging them into six-seat constituency and allowing all university graduates to elect them, that’s going to dilute that particular brand, which means it’s going to be much, much more difficult for the Mary Robinsons…who came into politics this way.”

Some graduates of NUI – which includes University College Dublin, University College Cork, NUI Galway and NUI Maynooth – and TCD have even been able to vote twice. And even with the reforms, Ireland will remain one of just two countries in the world to have a university constituency, alongside Rwanda.

Gary Murphy, professor of politics at Dublin City University, said many believed that the idea of a university constituency was “anachronistic” in an Ireland where close to half the population has attended higher education.

While there will be a significant increase in the size of the new electorate, Murphy said turnout had been “woeful” in the NUI and TCD constituencies for decades. 

“I'm not convinced that there will be great swathes of people from the disenfranchised universities keen to exercise their franchise…but it’s certainly a big deal for the universities themselves as it gives them equal status to the NUI and TCD.

“For decades, myself and my colleagues have felt our students and graduates have been disenfranchised.”

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com