With regard to the election by Members of the Dáil of 30 Members of the Senate, I sent out a letter on Monday evening to all the Deputies, pointing out that only two nominations had been received so far, and pointing out that in all probability the 7th or 8th December would be the last day for receiving nominations. I would like to remind the Deputies that there are possibilities of an earlier date being the last day for receiving these nominations. There cannot be a later date; there might possibly be an earlier date. Therefore it would be advisable that we should have these nominations at the earliest possible moment.
SEANAD NOMINATIONS.
In that connection, I, for one, made out a nomination, but in view of the possibility that the person whom I intended to nominate may be on the Government's nominated 30, what is the purpose of putting it in until we an least know who the Government 30 are?
I may say, Sir, I have not yet got answers from all the bodies who have been written to for nomination, and I may also point out that it is open to any person to nominate anybody. Should it happen that the person nominated is nominated by the President also, the name is simply struck out.
The point is, is the name struck out of the list for election by the Dáil, or the list of the President's nominations? Which list is it struck out of?
Out of the list for the Dáil.
In that case the nominator is left with having put somebody forward who is not going forward and he has more or less committed himself to that person to a certain extent by turning down, others whom he might have chosen, or whose virtues and merits might have been represented to him. That is the way the difficulty arises.
I will undertake, should the Deputy so desire, to publish a list of the nominations that have been sent in to me by the various bodies.
That would not be a real assistance, I am afraid.
It would give an idea.
It would be well, at any rate, if Deputies had their nominations in, and then, if necessary, as soon as they learn the names of the President's nominees, they could withdraw their own.