Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations.

By way of introduction, my initial interest would be to ensure that every citizen in the Twenty-six Counties can cast their vote. I do not have the percentages with me. There has been talk of personal, postal, proxy and electronic voting, although we should not dare to mention electronic voting. The franchise in the Twenty-six Counties does not allow anybody to vote by proxy. It is amazing that one can vote by proxy in the North. Equally, for somebody to achieve a postal vote in the South one must be housebound or a diplomat. In terms of personal voting, an awful lot of people are disenfranchised before we ever start.

I have no issue with the proposal on the presidential election idea, but I have yet to be convinced. The delegates have studied it, probably intensively. Is there a danger, or is the country so small, that the diaspora or others could actually influence the result unduly? Mr. Bassett is obviously suggesting the franchise expand beyond presidential elections, but it is a good example with which to kick off. I have no difficulty with that, but I have yet to be convinced. Where local elections are concerned, local election constituencies are such that people could actually be elected, based on citizenship, who are not even resident in the country. The delegates have studied this. Is the size of the population an issue in that we could allow people living outside the State to overly influence decisions at national or local government level?