Professor Colin Harvey:

To follow on and agree with what Mr. Bassett said, what we are suggesting is to in a sense pre-empt some of those challenges. Increasingly difficult questions will be asked about the Irish system, which looks like a blanket exclusion of citizens who are resident outside the State. In a sense, there is a direction of travel towards doing this and we want to pre-empt those challenges being questioned on human rights and European law grounds.

The swamping point is interesting. If we look at the evidence we see that there are a number of steps to the process. There is eligibility, registration and then actual voting. If we look at comparative practice around the world and as those steps go forward, some of the scare stories and concerns that are often spread about it do not transpire in practice. In fact, the actual turnout can be disappointing and much lower than expected. That is not a great reason for not proceeding with it because we want people to participate. If we look at the history of voting rights, people always said at the time that if voting or democratic inclusion was extended it would have consequences or costs but in terms of the principle of equal citizenship they are not great arguments for not taking that path.

The second point I would like to raise is that if we are thinking about the democratic spirit, it is not a great argument to start that discussion around profound distrust as to how voters might actually vote because there is then the work of persuading people. I would not want to start an argument about democratic inclusion from the premise that we do not trust how voters might vote. It does not sound very democratic to me.