Seanad revamp ‘more costly than an election’
Proposals criticised for being much too expensive and overly complex
THE cost of an overhauled Seanad electoral process will be higher than the €26m State expenditure on a general election, according to documents seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday.
Proposals to make the Upper House more relevant and representative have also been criticised as complex and difficult to implement.
With powerful figures on a 26-person implementation committee opposing many proposals in Senator Michael McDowell’s unpublished Bill, it is possible the Government will ask the reformers to go back to the drawing board.
The Bill, seen by the MoS, aims to implement the Manning Report on Seanad reform, which was compiled after Enda Kenny’s 2013 referendum to abolish the Seanad failed.
Currently, 43 senators are elected by councillors, TDs and senators.
Under the reform proposals, 30 seats would be filled by a popular vote and politicians would elect 13 members.
However, the electorate would include all those living abroad who hold Irish passports – leading to a significant increase in expenditure.
Also, the current panel system would be partially retained for the 30 elected seats, triggering further complications.
A raft of changes was suggested by former senator Maurice Manning in his 2015 report. However, the proposals will put significant strain on State coffers. Concerns about costs were raised in a September 2016 letter, also seen by the MoS, from the Department of Local Government, which oversees elections.
The letter to Mr McDowell, chairman of the implementation committee, identifies the main recommendations in the Manning Report that would give rise to costs. These include electing the ‘majority of Seanad seats by popular vote’ and giving votes to all Irish passport holders overseas and in Northern Ireland.
It raises concerns that an online registration of voters and postage would be expensive – significantly more so than running a general election.
The cost to the State of running the 2016 election was €26,794,268.
This included €12,845,135 for taking the poll in 40 constituencies; OPW printing costs of €393,146 and nearly €3m to allow candidates to recoup their expenses.
However, the potential electorate for the new Seanad election system would be much higher at around 6million – more than twice the 2.85million Dáil electorate – according to the implementation committee. Currently senators are elected from panels for which they qualify by means of employment experience. Under the new system, the Seanad electorate will be primarily outside the State, with much of the electoral communication done by post.
Since all 6million Seanad electors would return their ballots by Freepost, costs would be many multiples higher than the €11.3m spent on the 2016 election.
The reformed Seanad would also require initial significant outlay of ‘as much as €11m’ on computer software. Ballot papers would be downloaded from an online system, similar to the €7m system used in New Zealand.
General election costs are kept down because of what the department’s correspondence calls the ‘randomness’ of distribution of surpluses in a Dáil election count.
But there is ‘no randomness in the distribution of surpluses at a Seanad panel member election count’. Bearing this and the larger electorate in mind, the count would take a good deal longer leading to ‘significantly increased costs’, according to the letter.
Documents also show that clerk of the Seanad Martin Groves, has previously outlined the complexity of the proposals.
‘The working group’s proposal would increase the complexity of the administration of Seanad elections,’ he said in a presentation last June. ‘It would give rise to at least 11 separate electoral processes – five vocational elections for the broader electorate, five for the 13 panel seats and one university constituency.’
The Housing Department, which did some of the costings, said the reform committee is really under the control of the department of Taoiseach.
However, it added: ‘Officials in the department met with the group at their request and, as part of discussions, they requested the department to look at possible costs for implementation of the recommendations of the Manning Report for Seanad reform.
‘These are only estimated costs based on existing material available to the department.’
‘Twice the 2.8million Dáil electorate’