Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Táim anseo chun mo thacaíocht a léiriú don Bhille seo inniu. Sílim go bhfuil sé fíor-thábhachtach.

I am attending today to support the legislation. I have been the Sinn Féin spokesperson on the diaspora for some years and it is a very interesting role. I concur with most of what has been said and I do not propose to repeat the points made by previous speakers. However, the notion that people who have lived abroad for some years are disconnected from what is going on at home is balderdash. When we meet Irish people in Britain, Canada, the United States and other countries, we often find they are more in tune with what is happening at home than many people we know in our localities. They have access to information via the Internet, apps, etc., and read high-quality news published online. As Senator Lawless will be aware, one of the first things many emigrants do in the morning is to check the RTE news or thejournal.ie to find out what is happening at home. I often receive texts in the middle of the night from people in the United States asking whether I was aware of this or that issue. Members of the diaspora are very much in tune with what his happening at home and they feel disenfranchised. The Bill is important to them for this reason.

The Bill also recognises that members of the diaspora are citizens. Even though they are not physically present in Ireland, they are passionate about their Irishness and do not lose their sense of citizenship. Having been born and brought up here, many of them believe they have a duty of care to Irish people at home. Their strong commitment to the island of Ireland is one of the reasons the Bill is important.

I share the concerns expressed about the delay in introducing legislation of this nature. I understand, for example, that when some of the Baltic states joined the European Union, some of them were able to compile an electoral register within one year to allow their citizens living abroad to vote in elections. I am interested in hearing more about this from the officials.