Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. Our voting system is not easily adaptable to embracing either electronic or Internet voting. I wish to raise a number of issues relating to Estonia, Spain and Cyprus. The voting numbers appear to be low. Has there ever been an occasion when external voters influenced the outcome of an election? As Deputy Eric Byrne said, we had a constitutional convention and there was a great deal of support for extending the right to vote in presidential elections to citizens resident abroad. There are logistical issues because we have a large diaspora and, therefore, we are looking at extending rights to a substantial number of people. We elicited the views of 66 citizens and 33 parliamentarians on the issue. Spain and Estonia have extended citizens rights, while Denmark has a similar regime to ours. Is there popular support for these rights in Spain and Estonia? In countries where rights are not so liberal, for example, Cyprus and Denmark, is there much of a public clamour to have them extended? These rights are permanent in Spain, but I am not sure whether they are permanent in Estonia. A limited extension of voting rights was proposed for Irish citizens resident abroad, but the majority view was that there should be a time limit on them. In other words, citizens resident abroad for longer specified periods should not have the right to influence the outcome of an election.