Dr. Adrian Kavanagh:

Instead of having to rustle through the ballot box for one's vote. It has interesting potential. I suspect if and when we decide to extend voting rights, it will be a few years down the line, by which stage technology may have developed in such a way that e-voting is the more logical way of managing it, particularly for younger voters who are comfortable with it, and then postal voting or consulate voting for others could be considered. I do not want to say this would be for older people, because many older people are much better with technology than I am, but those who are not comfortable with technology would have a fall-back position.

With regard to the question of who is the Irish diaspora, everyone in the room will have a different opinion. Who the Irish diaspora should be with regard to voting rights is interesting. Political philosophy suggests people should be allowed to vote in one national election and, ideally, once they become settled, they should vote in their country of residence. The suggestion in academic literature, which is why I took this five year window, is that emigrants should have voting rights for five or six years, by which stage they should be established in their new country of residence. This would mean we would not have a situation whereby people would vote in general elections in two countries as happens with regard to Croatia, which is a member of the EU. The Bosnian Croats can vote in Croatia and also vote in Bosnia. It is a tricky question.