Almost 600,000 voters will be added to the register of electors for the Seanad university seats under a plan agreed by the Government.

At present just over 150,000 graduates are entitled to vote in Seanad elections in the National University of Ireland (NUI) and Trinity College Dublin constituencies, each of which elect three senators.

The Cabinet yesterday agreed the outline of a Bill that will give about 740,000 people in the country who have a third-level qualification the right to vote in a new six-seat Seanad constituency.

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan received the approval of his colleagues for the general scheme of a Bill to extend the right to vote in Seanad elections to all graduates.

Consultations
A Government spokesman said after the meeting that a round of consultations will now begin on how the new system should operate.

The Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, the Seanad and the country’s third-level institutions will all be asked for their views as part of the process. The detailed legislation is not now expected until after Christmas.

The spokesman said the Cabinet agreed all voters with degrees or equivalent qualifications should be entitled to vote in the Seanad constituency. Work will now take place on defining what a degree or equivalent qualification means.

In the census of 2011, the number of people declaring that they had third-level degrees was 740,000 and that figure is the estimated size of the new constituency.

The creation of a single register of electors for the new constituency will get under way as quickly as possible, according to the spokesman, who said that it would then be updated on a yearly basis.