Seanad Éireann | |
|---|---|
| 27th Seanad | |
 | |
| Type | |
| Type | Upper house of theOireachtas |
| History | |
| Established | 29 December 1937 (Modern form) |
| Preceded by | Irish Free State Seanad |
New session started | 12 February 2025 |
| Leadership | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 60 |
 | |
Political groups | Government (36)
Opposition (24)
|
| Committees |
|
Joint committees |
|
Length of term | No more than 5 years |
| Authority | Articles 18−19, Constitution of Ireland |
| Salary | €79,614 per year[1] plus expenses[2] |
| Elections | |
| Indirect election[c] | |
Last election | 29−30 January 2025 |
Next election | 2030 |
| Meeting place | |
 | |
| Seanad Chamber Leinster House,Kildare Street, Dublin | |
| Website | |
| www | |
| Constitution | |
| Constitution of Ireland | |
| Rules | |
| Seanad Éireann – Standing Orders Relative to Public Business 2025 | |
| Footnotes | |
| |
53°20′26″N6°15′14″W / 53.34055°N 6.254021°W /53.34055; -6.254021Seanad Éireann (/ˈʃænədˈɛərən,ˈʃænəð/ ⓘSHAN-əd(h)AIR-ən;[3]Irish:[ˈʃan̪ˠəd̪ˠˈeːɾʲən̪ˠ]; "Senate of Ireland") is theupper house of theOireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises thePresident of Ireland andDáil Éireann (thelower house).
It is commonly called theSeanad orSenate and its members are known as senators (Irish:seanadóirí, singular: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 inLeinster House.
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Administrative geography | ||||||||
Under Article 18 of theConstitution of Ireland, Seanad Éireann consists of 60 senators, composed as follows:
The general election for the Seanad occurs after aDáil general election and not later than 90 days after the dissolution of the preceding Dáil. The election occurs under the system ofproportional representation by means of thesingle transferable vote. Membership is open to all Irish citizens over 21, but a senator cannot also be a member of Dáil Éireann. As stated above, nomination to vocational panel is restricted; nomination in the university constituencies requires signatures of 10 graduates. The Taoiseach's nominations are made after the elected seats have been filled.
In the case of casual vacancies in the vocational panels, the electorate in the by-election consists of Oireachtas members only.[4] Vacancies to the university seats are filled by the full electorate in that constituency until March 2025, after which vacancies will be filled through a list system.
| Party | Senators | |
|---|---|---|
| Fianna Fáil | 19 | |
| Fine Gael | 17 | |
| Sinn Féin | 6 | |
| Labour | 2 | |
| Aontú | 1 | |
| Green | 1 | |
| Social Democrats | 1 | |
| Independent | 13 | |
| Total | 60 | |
The powers of Seanad Éireann are modelled loosely on those of the BritishHouse 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 ownstanding orders and appoints its president, known as theCathaoirleach ("Chair"). TheTaoiseach appoints a senator to beLeader of the House and direct government business there. The Seanad establishes its ownstanding committees andselect committee; senators also participate, along with TDs (members of the Dáil) injoint committees of the Oireachtas. A maximum of two senators may be ministers in theGovernment.
The first parliamentary upper house in Ireland was theHouse of Lords of theParliament 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 theAct of Union of 1800 no parliament existed in Ireland until the twentieth century.
In 1919 Irish nationalists established a legislature calledDáil Éireann but this body wasunicameral and so had no upper house. In 1920 theParliament of Southern Ireland was established by British law with an upper house called the Senate. TheSenate 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 theIrish Free State in 1922 but a number of its members were soon appointed to the new Free State senate.
The nameSeanad 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 thePresident of the Executive Council and members indirectly elected by the Dáil, andW. 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 theConstitution (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, in1925, 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 theConstitution (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 the 1937 constitution was adopted, it was decided to preserve the titles ofOireachtas for the two houses of the legislature, in conjunction with the President,Dáil Éireann for the lower house, andSeanad Éireann for the upper house, the latter having been used during the Irish Free State. The 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 ofvocational panels used to nominate candidates for the Seanad was inspired by thecorporatist Roman Catholic social teaching of the 1930s and, in particular, the 1931 papal encyclicalQuadragesimo anno. In that document,Pope Pius XI argued that theMarxist 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.[7][8]
Since 1928, twelve separate official reports have been published on reform of the Seanad.[9] In the 1980s, theProgressive 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 ofpatronage 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 ofNorthern Ireland. In 1999 theReform 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.
TheSeventh 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.
In 2019, Tomás Heneghan, a graduate ofUniversity of Limerick, challenged the limitation of voting rights to graduates ofNational University of Ireland,Trinity College Dublin, and toOireachtas and local authority members.[10] The case was heard by a three-judge division of theHigh Court in 2021.[11] The challenge was rejected by the court later that year.[12] On 31 March 2023, following a direct appeal on the point of university graduates voting, the seven-judgeSupreme Court ruled in Heneghan's favour and struck down provisions of the Seanad Electoral (University Members) Act 1937 limiting the right to vote to NUI and Trinity College graduates.[13] 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. 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.[14]
The Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Act 2024, enacted on 29 October 2024, abolishes the two three-seatNational University of Ireland andDublin University constituencies, and creates a new six-seatHigher Education constituency in which all degree-holders from third-level state institutions of higher education will be entitled to vote at the next Seanad general election after 21 March 2025. The legislation also replaces Seanad by-elections for the six seats with a list system mirroring the process used inEuropean Parliament elections and increases the number of nominations a prospective candidate needs from 10 to 60 registered electors or the payment of a deposit of €1,800. As of 21 March 2025, the entire 2024 Act was in force, with the exception of sections 27 and 31-46 that will take effect upon the next dissolution of Dáil Éireann.[15] On 1 April 2025, the first register of Higher Educations Electors was published, with 62,775 registered electors.[16]
In October 2009,Fine Gael leaderEnda 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 the2011 election campaign,Labour,Sinn Féin and theSocialist Party also supported abolition of the Seanad,[18][19][20] whileFianna Fáil supported a referendum on the issue.[21] The programme of theFine 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 fromNorthern Ireland among theireleven nominees, such asJohn Robb (served 1982–1989),Seamus Mallon (1982–1983) of theSDLP,Bríd Rodgers (1983–1987) also of the SDLP, peace campaignerGordon Wilson (1993–1997), businessmanEdward Haughey (1994–2002),Maurice Hayes (1997–2002), andEmer Currie (2020–2024).
Sam McAughtry was elected to theIndustrial and Commercial Panel in a by-election in February 1996.Niall Ó Donnghaile was elected in April 2016 as aSinn Féin senator for theAdministrative Panel while serving onBelfast City Council.Ian Marshall, a farmer and activist from aUnionist background, was elected to theAgricultural Panel in a by-election in April 2018.[23]Mal O'Hara of Belfast, leader ofGreen Party Northern Ireland, was deemed elected on the Administrative Panel in 2024.[24][25][26] In the 2025 election, Sinn FéinMLA forNewry and Armagh andMinister for the Economy,Conor Murphy was elected to the Seanad alongside theSocial Democrats'Patricia Stephenson, who is originally from Belfast.[27]
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