In moving the First Reading of this Bill I went rather fully into the considerations which caused the Government to bring such a Bill before the Dáil, because I was anxious, even at that stage, to show Deputies that a Bill of this kind was not lightly introduced so late in the session. I hope that I convinced the Dáil that there are in the Constitution certain deficiencies which would present considerable administrative difficulty if a Bill of this kind, supplementing and elaborating the provisions governing election to the Seanad were not introduced. I pointed out that one situation that would arise would be that having no power to hold elections to the Seanad until such time as the vacancies had actually arisen, there would be an interval of possibly two months or even ten or eleven weeks, in which the Seanad would not be properly and fully constituted. We considered it better to seek power to hold these elections before the date on which the vacancies occur, so that there will be no gap or interval in which the Oireachtas as defined by the Constitution will not exist in full.
The Bill, therefore, proposes the addition of two Articles to the Constitution, one an Article defining exactly the term of office of members of the first Seanad. "The duration of the term of office of a member of the first Seanad Eireann shall be reckoned from the beginning of the day on which this Constitution comes into operation and the duration of the term of office of a member of Seanad Eireann elected under Article 32 of this Constitution shall be reckoned from the beginning of the appropriate triennial anniversary of that day." Another Article fixes the dates within which these elections to the Seanad may be held—"at any time not more than three months before nor more than three months after the conclusion of the period of three years mentioned." There is practically nothing further in the Bill beyond a provision to meet the case of a person elected to fill a casual vacancy after the date on which the panel is completed. It is considered that the most sensible provision to meet a case of that kind would be that any person so elected should hold office until the conclusion of the next three year period and then retire. I move the Second Reading of the Bill.