MINISTER FOR HOUSING and Local Government Darragh O’Brien will today bring a bill to Cabinet that will allow graduates of all higher education institutions to vote in Seanad elections.

Graduates will also have to hold Irish citizenship to be eligible to vote. 

The move comes after the Supreme Court ruled last year that the existing university electoral panels for Seanad Éireann are unconstitutional.

Currently, six members of Seanad Éireann are elected by graduates from specific universities in Ireland – Trinity College Dublin and the universities of University College Dublin, University College Cork, University of Galway and Maynooth University. 

Under the new legislation, a new six-seat ‘Higher Education’ panel will be established, replacing the existing NUI and University of Dublin (Trinity College Dublin) constituencies. 

The franchise to vote in this panel will be extended to include graduates of designated institutions of higher education who hold Irish citizenship. 

Once the legislation comes into effect up to one million graduates are set to become eligible to vote.

Approximately 177,000 people are currently on the registers of electors for either the NUI or University of Dublin constituencies.

Census 2022 data shows that there were 951,445 Irish citizens aged 15 years and over living in Ireland on Census night who had completed an ordinary bachelor degree or higher.