The Seventh Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, the founding legal document of the Republic 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 5th July 1979 and signed into law on the 3rd August 1979 of the same year.
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Alterations to Article 18, Section 4 (new text is in bold):
Prior to the Seventh Amendment it was a constitutional requirement that three members of Seanad Éireann, the Irish Senate, be elected by the National University of Ireland (NUI) and three by 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 any institutions of higher education in any manner that might be determined by the Oireachtas (parliament). The amendment also ensured that the mere mention of the NUI and of Trinity College would not prevent either of these universities being dissolved in future. In actual fact, as of 2004, three senators continue to be elected by the graduates of the NUI and three by graduates of Trinity College. Furthermore, while the dissolution of the NUI was actively discussed in the 1970s with a view to legislation following the Seventh Amendment, this never came to pass. It should be noted that 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.
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