Seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

The Seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland provided that the procedure for the election of six members of the Senate by university graduates could be altered by law. It was effected by the Seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1979 which was approved by referendum on 5 July 1979 and signed into law on 3 August of the same year.

Changes to the text

• Alterations to Article 18.4 (new text is in bold):

1. The elected members of Seanad Éireann shall be elected as follows:

i. Three shall be elected by the National University of Ireland.

ii. Three shall be elected by the University of Dublin.

iii. Forty-three shall be elected from panels of candidates constituted as hereinafter provided.

2. Provision may be made by law for the election, on a franchise and in the manner to be provided by law, by one or more of the following institutions, namely:

i. the universities mentioned in subsection 1 of this section,

ii. any other institutions of higher education in the State, of so many members of Seanad Éireann as may be fixed by law in substitution for an equal number of the members to be elected pursuant to paragraphs i and ii of the said subsection 1.

A member or members of Seanad Éireann may be elected under this subsection by institutions grouped together or by a single institution.

3. Nothing in this Article shall be invoked to prohibit the dissolution by law of a university mentioned in subsection 1 of this section.

Overview

Prior to the Seventh Amendment it was a constitutional requirement that three members of Seanad Éireann, the Irish senate, be elected by the graduates of the National University of Ireland and three by the graduates of the University of Dublin (better known as Trinity College). With the amendment this requirement was changed to merely one that six senators be elected by the graduates of any institutions of higher education in any manner that might be determined by law by the Oireachtas (parliament). The amendment also ensured that the mere mention of the National University of Ireland and of the University of Dublin would not prevent either of these universities being dissolved in future. Furthermore, while the dissolution of the National University of Ireland was actively discussed in the 1970s with a view to legislation following the Seventh Amendment, this never came to pass. While the changes shown above are those made to the English language text of the constitution, constitutionally it is the Irish text that has precedence.

The Seventh amendment was introduced by a Fianna Fáil government. It was submitted to a referendum on the same day as the Sixth Amendment, which dealt with the validity of certain child adoption orders, and was approved on a low turnout by 552,600 (92.4%) votes in favour to 45,484 (7.6%) against.

Result

Seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland referendum

Choice	Votes	%
Yes	552,600	92.40
No	45,484	7.60
Valid votes	598,084	96.06
Invalid or blank votes	24,562	3.94
Total votes	622,646	100.00
Registered voters/turnout	2,179,466	28.57

Consequential changes

No change in the university constituency system was made in the decades after the amendment was passed. The Fine Gael-Labour government returned in 2011 proposed to abolish the Seanad altogether. After the proposal was rejected by referendum in 2013, the government agreed instead to reforming the Seanad. In February 2014, it published a draft Seanad Electoral (University Members) (Amendment) Bill, which would create a single six-seat constituency in which anyone with a degree-level qualification from a recognised institution would be eligible to vote.

See also

• Politics of the Republic of Ireland
• History of the Republic of Ireland
• Constitutional amendment
• University constituencies
• Irish constitutional referendum, 1979
• Amendments to the Constitution of Ireland

External links

• Seventh Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1979
• Full text of the Constitution of Ireland