Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank both delegates. We must go back to the fundamentals and I am asking them for their opinions. What do we mean when we speak about the Irish diaspora? Does it amount to 30 million or 40 million people? Is it 3 million in England? I am looking for guidance on the foundations of this debate. Whom do the delegates believe should be allocated the right to vote and what criteria should be used? Should Irish passports issued in the past five or ten years be used? What would the criteria be in establishing the electoral base?

I would like to know the delegates' thinking on what exactly the electorate would actually vote for. It is a mystery. There are different electoral systems throughout the world, as the delegates know. The list system is the most simple and straightforward for a diaspora. Where there is a multi-seat, multi-party constituency, how should eligible voters cast their votes? Should they vote for a party or candidates attached to parties? I have not got my head around what kind of ballot paper voters should receive in their embassy's polling station. One could hardly be given a ballot paper for one's original constituency.

The European Union is talking about participation in general elections. We have dealt with the Constitutional Convention issue that addressed the right to vote in the presidential election. Are the delegates in a position to advise us on whether we could have an incremental process involving our finding out who the electorate were? Should we start with the presidential election as the basis, although it would not conform with European requests? The delegates know that our electoral register is completed every year. When we decide who should comprise the electorate, what will be the basis on which they might be allowed to participate? Considering that Irish citizens must register every year to ensure they remain on the register, should members of the diaspora register every year in order to be eligible? There are many complications. However, as we must produce a report, I would be very interested in the delegation's explanation of how it believes we should proceed.

My final point concerns the key difficulty - Northern Ireland. In the North there is a divided community where some claim to be republican Nationalists and carry Irish passports, while others claim to be Unionists and carry UK passports. In debating the allocation of voting rights to the diaspora, should we logically carry through in respect of the rights of Nationalists in Northern Ireland, or even Unionists who may opt to carry an Irish passport?

We do not have an electoral commission, but I presume the system would have to be managed by embassies. Could we work on this issue incrementally, given that it is a European debate? Could we start with the 28 EU countries where, I presume, we at least have the ambassadorial infrastructure required? Would this create second-class citizens in America? While we are not going to write the manifesto now, I would be interested in knowing how the delegates believe we can overcome these preliminary issues.