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| Seanad Éireann | |
| Legislature: | 26th Seanad |
| Coa Pic: | Seanad Eireann logo.png |
| Coa Res: | 260px |
| House Type: | Upper house of the Oireachtas |
| Established: | 29 December 1937 (Modern form) |
| Preceded By: | Irish Free State Seanad |
| New Session: | 29 June 2020 |
| Leader1 Type: | Cathaoirleach |
| Leader1: | Jerry Buttimer |
| Election1: | 16 December 2022 |
| Party1: | FG |
| Leader2 Type: | Leas-Chathaoirleach |
| Leader2: | Mark Daly |
| Election2: | 16 December 2022 |
| Party2: | FF |
| Leader3 Type: | Leader of the Seanad |
| Leader3: | Lisa Chambers |
| Party3: | FF |
| Election3: | 16 December 2022 |
| Leader4 Type: | Deputy leader |
| Leader4: | Regina Doherty |
| Party4: | FG |
| Election4: | 16 December 2022 |
| Leader5 Type: | Opposition leader |
| Leader5: | Rebecca Moynihan |
| Party5: | Lab |
| Election5: | September 2020 |
| Members: | 60 |
| Structure1: | Current Seanad Éireann composition.svg |
| Structure1 Res: | 250px |
| Political Groups1: | Government (42) (21) (16) (5)Opposition (17) (4) (2) (1) (9) (2) |
| Authority: | Articles 18−19, Constitution of Ireland |
| Term Length: | No more than 5 years |
| Salary: | €78,826 per year[1] plus expenses[2] |
| Voting System1: | Indirect election[3] |
| Last Election2: | 30−31 March 2020 |
| Next Election1: | By March 2025 |
| Session Room: | File:Seanad Éireann interior.jpg |
| Session Res: | 290px |
| Meeting Place: | Seanad Chamber Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin |
| Constitution: | Constitution of Ireland |
| Rules: | Seanad Éireann – Standing Orders Relative to Public Business 2020 |
Seanad Éireann ([4] in Irish ˈʃan̪ˠəd̪ˠ ˈeːɾʲən̪ˠ/; "Senate of Ireland") is the senate of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (defined as the house of representatives).
It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members senators (Irish: seanadóirí in Irish, singular: Irish: seanadóir). Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by various methods. Its powers are much weaker than those of the Dáil and it can only delay laws with which it disagrees, rather than veto them outright. It can introduce new legislation. Since its establishment, it has been located in Leinster House.
Under Article 18 of the Constitution, Seanad Éireann consists of 60 senators, composed as follows:
The general election for the Seanad must occur not later than 90 days after the dissolution of Dáil Éireann. The election occurs under the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote (in the panel constituencies each vote counts as 1000, allowing fractions of votes to be more easily transferred). Membership is open to all Irish citizens over 21, but a senator cannot also be a member of Dáil Éireann. However, as stated above, nomination to vocational panel seats is restricted; nomination in the university constituencies requires signatures of 10 graduates.
In the case of vacancies in the vocational panels, the electorate in the by-election consists of Oireachtas members only.[5] Vacancies to the university seats are filled by the full electorate in that constituency.
See main article: 26th Seanad.
| Party | Senators | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | |||
| 16 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 4 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 1 | |||
| 9 | |||
| 2 | |||
| Total | 60 | ||
The powers of Seanad Éireann are modelled loosely on those of the British House of Lords. It is intended to play an advisory and revising role rather than to be an equal of the popularly elected Dáil. While notionally every Act of the Oireachtas must receive assent of both chambers, in practice the Seanad can only delay rather than veto decisions of the Dáil. The fact that 11 senators are appointed by the Taoiseach usually ensures that the Government, which must have the support of the Dáil, enjoys at least a plurality in the Seanad. The constitution imposes the following specific limitations on the powers of the Seanad:
The Constitution does, however, grant to the Seanad certain means by which it may defend its prerogatives against an overly zealous Dáil:
Seanad Éireann adopts its own standing orders and appoints its president, known as the Cathaoirleach ("Chair"). The Taoiseach appoints a senator to be Leader of the House and direct government business there. The Seanad establishes its own standing committees and select committee; senators also participate, along with TDs (members of the Dáil) in joint committees of the Oireachtas. A maximum of two senators may be ministers in the Government.
The first parliamentary upper house in Ireland was the House of Lords of the Parliament of Ireland, beginning in 1297. Like its British counterpart, this house consisted of hereditary nobles and bishops. After the abolition of the Irish Parliament under the Act of Union of 1800 no parliament existed in Ireland until the twentieth century.
In 1919 Irish nationalists established a legislature called Dáil Éireann but this body was unicameral and so had no upper house. In 1920 the Parliament of Southern Ireland was established by British law with an upper house called the Senate. The Senate of Southern Ireland consisted of a mixture of Irish peers and government appointees. The Senate convened in 1921 but was boycotted by Irish nationalists and so never became fully operational. It was formally abolished with the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 but a number of its members were soon appointed to the new Free State senate.
See main article: Seanad Éireann (Irish Free State). The name Seanad Éireann was first used as the title of the upper house of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State. The first Seanad consisted of a mixture of members appointed by the President of the Executive Council and members indirectly elected by the Dáil, and W. T. Cosgrave agreed to use his appointments to grant extra representation to the state's Protestant minority. The procedures for election of senators were amended before the first Seanad election by the Constitution (Amendment No. 1) Act 1925. It was intended that eventually the entire membership of the Seanad would be directly elected by the public. However after only one election, in 1925, where 19 Seanad members were elected in one district using STV, this system was abandoned in favour of a form of indirect election.
Initially casual vacancies in the Seanad were filled by vote of the remaining members. However this system was replaced under the Constitution (Amendment No. 11) Act 1929 by filling of vacancies by vote of both Dáil and Seanad, the system that continues today for panel members. The Free State Seanad was abolished entirely in 1936 after it delayed some Government proposals for constitutional changes.
The modern Seanad Éireann was established by the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, and first sat on 25 January 1939. When this document was adopted it was decided to preserve the titles of Oireachtas, for the two houses of the legislature, in conjunction with the President, Dáil Éireann for the lower house, and Seanad Éireann for the upper house, the latter having been used during the Irish Free State. This new Seanad was considered to be the direct successor of the Free State Seanad and so the first Seanad convened under the new constitution was referred to as the "Second Seanad".
The new system of vocational panels used to nominate candidates for the Seanad was inspired by the corporatist Roman Catholic social teaching of the 1930s, and in particular the 1931 papal encyclical Quadragesimo anno. In this document Pope Pius XI argued that the Marxist concept of class conflict should be replaced with a vision of social order based on the co-operation and interdependence of society's various vocational groups.[8] [9]
Since 1928, twelve separate official reports have been published on reform of the Seanad.[10] In the 1980s, the Progressive Democrats called for its abolition; however, in government, members of the party were nominated to the Seanad by the Taoiseach. The post-1937 body has been criticised on a number of grounds, including claims that it is weak and dominated by the Government of the day. There are also allegations of patronage in the selection of its members, with senators often being close allies of the Taoiseach or candidates who have failed to be elected to the Dáil. Many senators have subsequently been elected as TDs.
Irish universities have a long tradition of electing independent candidates. Some, like the pressure group Graduate Equality, argue that the franchise for electing university senators should be extended to the graduates of all third level institutions. Others believe that this does not go far enough and that at least some portion of the Seanad should be directly elected by all adult citizens. Calls have also been made for the Seanad to be used to represent Irish emigrants or the people of Northern Ireland. In 1999 the Reform Movement called for some of the Taoiseach's nominations to be reserved for members of the Irish-British minority, and other minorities such as members of the Travelling Community and recently arrived immigrants.
The Seventh Amendment in 1979 altered the provisions of Article 18.4 to allow for a redistribution of the university seats to any other institutes of higher education in the state, although no change has taken place since then.
In 2019, Tomás Heneghan, a graduate of University of Limerick, challenged the limitation of voting rights to graduates of National University of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, and to Oireachtas and local authority members.[11] The case was heard by a three-judge division of the High Court in 2021.[12] The challenge was rejected by the court later that year.[13] On 31 March 2023, following a direct appeal on the point of university graduates voting, the seven-judge Supreme Court ruled in Heneghan's favour and struck down the 1937 law limiting the right to vote to NUI and Trinity College graduates.[14] However, the court suspended its ruling to 31 July 2023 to allow the state to determine how it would institute the necessary changes to the law. In a statement, through his legal representatives at the Free Legal Advice Centres (FLAC), Heneghan said he hoped the Oireachtas would act speedily to extend the vote to everyone, regardless of educational or socio-economic background. This would be in line with the 2018 report of the cross-party Seanad Reform Implementation Group, chaired by Senator Michael McDowell.[15] On 26 July 2023, the Supreme Court gave a second ruling, allowing the Oireachtas up to 31 May 2025 to legislate for the expansion of the electorate.[16]
See main article: Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2013. In October 2009, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny stated his intention that a Fine Gael government would abolish the Seanad, and along with reducing the number of TDs by 20, it would "save an estimated €150m over the term of a Dáil."[17] During the 2011 election campaign, Labour, Sinn Féin and the Socialist Party also supported abolition of the Seanad,[18] [19] [20] while Fianna Fáil supported a referendum on the issue.[21] The programme of the Fine Gael–Labour coalition, which came to power at the election, sought to abolish the Seanad as part of a broader programme of constitutional reform,[22] but lost a referendum on the matter in October 2013 by 51.7% to 48.3%.
Taoisigh have often included people from Northern Ireland among their eleven nominees, such as John Robb (served 1982–1989), Seamus Mallon (1982–1983) of the SDLP, Bríd Rodgers (1983–1987) also of the SDLP, peace campaigner Gordon Wilson (1993–1997), businessman Edward Haughey (1994–2002), Maurice Hayes (1997–2002), and Emer Currie (2020–present).
Sam McAughtry was elected to the Industrial and Commercial Panel in a by-election in February 1996. Niall Ó Donnghaile was elected in April 2016 as a Sinn Féin senator for the Administrative Panel while serving on Belfast City Council. Ian Marshall, a farmer and activist from a Unionist background, was elected to the Agricultural Panel in a by-election in April 2018.[23] Mal O'Hara of Belfast, leader of Green Party Northern Ireland, was elected on the Administrative Panel in 2024.[24] [25] [26]