The programme for Government commits the Government to pursuing the implementation of the independent working group on Seanad reform as a priority. The report of the working group acknowledged that the current electoral system for the Seanad is elitist and it produced a range of proposals for the reform of the Seanad, including opening up the electoral participation for emigrants and citizens in the North. The programme for Government describes the implementation of the Manning report as a priority. There has been very little evidence of this. It is a year and a half since its publication and there is no sign of prioritisation. Has the Taoiseach set a date for the Dáil debate on the working group’s report on Seanad reform? The working group also recommended that the interim implementation body be established, and the Taoiseach wrote to party leaders on this matter last week. Does the Taoiseach have a date in mind for the establishment of that implementation body? Given that in the Seanad last week the Taoiseach committed to implementing the proposals of the working group, how confident is he that this will happen before Fianna Fáil decides to call an election?

I wrote to all the party leaders asking them to nominate somebody to serve on the implementation committee. As soon as I have all those names, and I assume every party will want to participate, under the direction of the Leader of the Seanad, Senator Buttimer, the first meeting will take place and the authors of the report, former Senators Manning and O’Toole, are available to give technical advice if necessary to the implementation group. I referred to this in the Seanad last week. As soon as the names come back from the parties, we will have the implementation group’s first meeting and get on with implementation. I hope that everybody will support it although there have been 11 reports on the Seanad over the past 35 years and there was never agreement, even from within the Seanad of the day. I hope that it will look more favourably on this.

Separate from that, the Minister of State with responsibility for the diaspora, Deputy McHugh, is pursuing the question of votes for emigrants and for those in Northern Ireland and we will move that forward as quickly as possible.