The Gazette 1971

If the President is charged with stated misbehaviour, he should be tried by three High Court Judges in the Central Criminal Court with an automatic appeal to the full Supreme Court if he were convicted. Within their criminal jurisdiction the Courts are well used to dealing with any charge that could be preferred against the President. Perhaps a jury of members of the Oireachtas could be substituted for an ordinary jury. It is submitted that it would be unsatisfactory for the charge to be instigated by a two-thirds majority of one of the Houses of the Oireachtas and for the other House to hear the case, or even to have it submitted to an ad hoc judicial tribunal. (2) Article 15, Section 3—Functional Councils In view of the manner in which the Report on Voca- tional Organisation 1943 has been pigeonholed, it would seem that this excellent idea is but a pious aspir- ation and unlikely to be revived in the future. Article 19 providing for a possible Senate based on vocational councils would appear to have been shelved also. Article 18—The Senate One need not stress the necessity of a second revising Chamber as a check on hasty legislation. The purported remarks of a former vice-chairman of the Labour Party in which he endeavoured to enlist support for the abolition of the Second House should be entirely dis- counted as being exceptionally ill-informed. On the whole, legislation is considered in a much more dispas- sionate way in the Seanad and thus receives much more careful treatment. Furthermore, the intellectual per- sonnel of the Seanad is normally of a much higher calibre than that of the Dáil. Article 18 of the Constitution deals in detail with the Seanad but it would be tedious to examine it in detail. The following amendments are, however, suggested. (a) Article 18, Section 2. In accordance with the practice prevailing in most Second Chambers elsewhere, it is suggested that only citizens over thirty years of age should be eligible to become members of the Seanad, as against the present practice of allowing eligibility at twenty-one years of age. It is only an exceptional person under thirty years of age who could absorb the intri- cacies of legislation. (b) Article 18, Section 4. At present, this Section sets out in detail how University Senators are to be selected by the National University of Ireland and by Trinity College, Dublin, respectively. Apart from other changes it would seem necessary to make provision in the future for university representation from the two univer- sities in Northern Ireland, namely Queen's University, Belfast, and the new University of Ulster in Coleraine, by arranging that the Taoiseach should automatically nominate someone to represent them, particularly since their representation in Stormont was abolished. In order to achieve this, it would seem to be necessary to draft an amendment somewhat on these lines: "Six shall be elected by graduates of universities in Ireland residing in Ireland in a manner to be determined by law". Graduate electors to the Seanad should normally be confined to graduates resident in Ireland, as it is unlikely that graduates residing outside the country would be expected to take an active interest in political and social affairs here. It would be necessary to set up a special register in each university of graduates residing in Ireland, but this could be achieved. Some other changes might be necessary, but doubtless agreement could be reached. Let us hope that the view expressed by the late Donough O'Malley that some seats in the Seanad should automatically be reserved for literateurs

like Micheál Mac Liammóir and the late Patrick Kava- nagh who would presumably be nominated by the Taoiseach, will be followed. Article 18, Section 6 Up to now, the so-called cricket team of eleven which the Taoiseach has nominated has often consisted of inconsequential party stooges, who have been as little noted for their distinction as for their learning. It is submitted that it would be preferable if the President were to nominate these eleven members strictly from specified listed categories to be determine by law, dsuch as retired Judges and Justices, retired officers in the higher echelons of the Army, the Garda, and of the Civil Service, retired university professors, etc. Such nominations would at least ensure that the persons selected would have proper standards regardless of their party political affiliations. Article 18, Section 8—Seanad Sessions It is submitted that as on the Continent, every session of the Seanad should last for a definite period regardless of any intervening Dáil dissolution, say three or four years. This would ensure that the Seanad would be more independent of the Dáil which, in view of the fact that it can in theory only delay legislation for the very limited stated period of ninety days and can only hold up recommendations in the case of Money Bills for twenty-one days, would not be a serious impediment to the enactment of legislation. Owing to its present composition normally a majority for the Government is ensured and this delaying power has consequently in fact hardly ever been exercised. There is consequently no necessity of holding a Seanad election within three months of a Dóil dissolution, as at present. Article 18, Section 10 The panel system of election to the Seanad, should, as regards the professional nominated members, be re- placed by a direct election from a representative com- mittee of each of their number, in order to ensure expert representation in this Chamber. This can only be achieved by radically amending the legislation electing panel members to the Seanad. Article 22, Section 2, Subsection 2—Committee of Privileges for Money Bills This refers to the cumbrous procedure whereby the President is asked to refer the question whether a Bill is or is not a Money Bill to a specified Committee of Privileges. It would seem that this complicated proce- dure is unnecessary because as far as is known, this power has never been exercised under the present Constitution, and it only arose once under the Consti- tution of 1922. Article 24—Temporary Emergency Legislation As far as is known, the procedure set out so elaborately in this Article providing in the first instance for a three months emergency, and subsequently for an indefinite emergency if renewed, has never in fact been availed of in practice. Is it really necessary to retain it in view of the fact that a national emergency still exists, at any rate on paper, and is unlikely to be altered in the fore- seeable future? It is therefore evident that until the present permariCTif emergency legislation is amended, it is more than sufficient to meet any situation that may arise, and consequently this Article appears to be unnecessary. Article 27—Referendum Procedure of Ordinary Bills A very elaborate cumbrous procedure has been provided, which is so circumscribed by restrictions that it is most 79