I recently had a very engaging chat with students from the politics and society class in St. Joseph's College. It is a school the Tánaiste is very familiar with. They asked some very interesting questions, including one on Seanad reform and specifically about having more diverse voices and minority voices included, going beyond the Taoiseach's nominees to assist. I was thinking about that in the context of the Manning report which proposes having more of a democratic input from the public. We have seen the expansion of the universities on the university panel, which is welcome, but we need to make the Seanad more democratic. For example, we could have different sections like labour and arts where a member of the electorate could choose the section they wish to vote in. We should engage and open that process again to have real Seanad reform, as was the wish of the people in the referendum over ten years ago. The Government might revisit the issue and look at real Seanad reform this time around.

Sentiment score: 0.30