John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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First, there is no question but that all of us accept it is a complex issue by virtue of the fact that we have the largest diaspora in the world relative to the population in Ireland. It is in the region of 40 million to 70 million if one is to include everybody who left Ireland.

A couple of issues arise. One is that we should be careful how we decide to define an Irish citizen. The Chairman said that we do not have a problem with someone representing our country in football games because their grandfather was born in Ireland. We tend to cherish the person who puts on a green jersey and sings the national anthem. We probably give such a person more recognition that we would give to someone who was born in this country but is unable to vote because he or she had to leave the country through no fault of his or her own.

Deputy Crowe hit the nail on the head. First, we need to accept that there is a problem - namely, that we are disenfranchising millions of Irish people around the world. It is a complex situation. It might be that we decide to give the vote to everybody who holds an Irish passport. Someone suggested that we could trace family heredity. I have family members in America who have been there for two or three generations. One could ask whether we should go down through the generations and give them a vote. I am not too sure about that. I am open to hearing the opinion of others in that regard.

We all accept that we need to stop disenfranchising our citizens. Many members will have relations living in other countries who are still interested in what happens in Ireland. Without getting into the blame game for our bad economic situation, as we could have the same 20 years from now, hundreds of thousands of people have had to leave our country through no fault of their own. If we asked them if they would like to have a say in how the country is run, they would give a resounding “Yes”. We owe it to those people. I accept that it would be extremely difficult and complicated to give the vote to the 70 million people around the world who claim Irish ancestry. Legislatively, it would probably collapse on top of us. However, a person born in this country who has an Irish passport should be given the vote.

I specifically did not mention the Seanad because ordinary people do not have a vote in its elections anyway.