In Politics by Numbers, broadcaster, author and spreadsheet stan Gavan Reilly takes a data deep dive into a political point of the week.   

YOU MIGHT NOT know the name of Tomás Heneghan. If you went to any college in the country other than the five oldest universities, you ought to: he’s the reason you’re getting another vote in the next election.

Heneghan, a graduate of the University of Limerick, was the man behind a successful legal challenge to the format of Seanad elections – and specifically how only the graduates of Trinity and the NUI universities could vote to elect six of the country’s senators. A referendum in 1979 had allowed for other graduates to join them, but legislation to extend the vote had never been passed. It took Heneghan’s legal case, backed by the Free Legal Advice Centres, for the Supreme Court to rule that this absence of legislation was itself constitutional.

As a result, up to a million Irish citizens – no matter where they live, anywhere in the world – will have a vote in the next Seanad election. Those citizens, who might not even have a vote in Dáil elections depending on where they live, would now have a say (or a second say) in the composition of the Oireachtas that debates and passes laws, and sets the rules for the whole country to live by.

But it seems that people either don’t know much about it, or that they’re not bothered.

Paltry take-up to register for a vote

The Electoral Commission has been doing some research on the register for the new, unified, Higher Education constituency that will replace the old Trinity and NUI constituencies. The new six-seat constituency is open to graduates from over 80 different institutions – effectively meaning........

© TheJournal