I thank the Chairman for allowing us to come before the sub-committee to discuss this matter. We established a small group within Trinity, chaired by the registrar, Professor Stalley, one of the other members of which was Dr.Gerard Hogan, our expert on constitutional law, with whom, I presume, members are familiar.
As time is short, I will get straight to the point. With regard to university representation, we are proud of the way that the Dublin University Senators have contributed to the Seanad over the years. I would say the same about those Senators who have represented the NUI. As was noted previously by the all-party committee on the Constitution, the university contribution has been exceptional. That contribution has also been independent in nature and close to de Valera's concept of a Seanad based on the vocational sectors. It is my view that of all the constituencies in the Seanad, that represented by the universities has worked best. We would all agree that reform is necessary. In considering such reform, it would be our view that focusing on the areas that have not worked should be given high priority. The contribution of the university sector has worked and rather than trying to change that, we believe it would be most useful to build upon it.
We recognise that the current position is different from that which obtained in 1937. There were two universities then, there are many more now. The higher education sector has expanded to include all sorts of institutions. We would favour increasing the numerical representation from the higher education sector as a whole, not just the universities. In terms of achieving this, we would not see it as happening at the expense of the other panels in the Seanad. Neither do we see the overall number of Members of the Seanad, 60, as sacrosanct. An expansion of the total membership of the House should be considered. As members might expect, we favour retaining the number of Dublin University Senators at three for a number of reasons. One of these is viability. The election process is complicated and expensive and to be viable it needs to involve the election of more than one Senator. The historical connections Dublin University or Trinity College has had throughout the country are also important, particularly, as members will be aware, those with Northern Ireland.
Our view is that we should build on what has worked well and that the Seanad should be expanded and made more inclusive.