Madam, - Like the generality of the news media your newspaper has chosen to question the very existence of Seanad Éireann. There have been ill-informed contributions by various of your regular correspondents.
Much more serious, however, is the fact that you devoted an editorial (June 19th) to this subject in which you state "It seems both elitist and undemocratic that while all Irish citizens have one vote in election to the Dáil, some Irish citizens have a second vote in the election to the second chamber, the Seanad".
You go on to speak of an "unacceptable electoral distinction" and say that the situation is "now wholly indefensible". That may be. However it is equally indefensible that you should persist in wilful ignorance.
All these questions were clearly answered at a press conference I called last week which was attended by two correspondents from your newspaper and yet so far nothing has appeared to balance out your grotesque accusations.
Readers may question why a newspaper like The Irish Times should join the political parties in a wholesale attack on university representation.
This is especially puzzling when in fact with any ordinary use of language the university seats are the only element in the Seanad that is not either elitist or undemocratic.
In the University of Dublin there are 50,000 electors, in NUI there are 100,000.
This seems to me to be a hell of a lot more democratic and less elitist than the 11 who are nominated directly without even the pretence of an electoral process and the 43 who are elected at the direction of the political parties.
Imagine the situation in which only voters in one constituency, for example Dublin Central, were permitted to vote. All the other constituencies had their representatives nominated and imposed by a small unrepresentative cabal.
Would it be logical to describe voters of Dublin Central as elitist while completely ignoring the situation in the rest of Ireland?
That is exactly what you are doing in your very misguided piece.
Yes, of course there should be reform of the Seanad and yes, of course Dublin City University and the DIT as well as Limerick University etc should be included as voters.
If before writing the editorial you had consulted the record of Seanad Éireann you would have found that not only myself but all my university colleagues have said more or less the same thing. - Yours, etc,
DAVID NORRIS, North Great George's Street, Dublin 2.