Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank members for their comments and questions. Deputy Coppinger asked about the Bill itself and whether it applies to people who are resident here but who are not entitled to vote at the moment. The Bill will change the Constitution. The Deputy asked if it could be more ambitious and perhaps it could be but what we are trying to do is to get it over the line. We want to get it agreed. The questions about who could vote in terms of criteria such as passport holders, number of years living abroad and so on can be argued and agreed but first we need to change the Constitution to enable the diaspora living outside the State to vote. Some have questioned whether 16 year olds should be included but that is a debate for another day. The Deputy is correct that we could probably have included other provisions but we did not do so because we want to get this across the line.

I do not think it will add to tensions in the North. Deputy Adams spoke about Presidents of Ireland going North and there was a time when unionists would have protested if an Irish President visited the North but thankfully things have moved on. It is now seen as a positive rather than a negative. There has been a huge increase in the number of applicants for Irish passports from the North. That can be seen as a negative but I see it as a positive development.

Senator Lawless spoke about graduates voting in Seanad elections and so forth, which does not make sense. That said, it is not a simple issue. We need to have a serious discussion about how we see this rolling out. The Bill itself is simple but that is just one part of the work we need to do. If there is agreement that we push this forward, that is a positive step that opens the door for our people. I would not like to exclude anyone. One hears people refer to second or third generation Irish people who still consider themselves to be Irish. If one goes to Argentina, for example, there are many people there whose ancestors left Ireland hundreds of years ago who still consider themselves to be Irish, part of the Irish nation and the Irish diaspora. We need to be tapping in to that. Imagine the potential that exists in terms of the resource of 70 million people who claim an Irish identity and what we could do if we could use that in a positive manner. I do not mean using it as a cash cow but harnessing the goodwill of that which would be very helpful into the future.

We have had a good discussion this morning. It is worth remembering that the European Commission was critical of the fact that when Irish citizens leave Ireland they cannot vote in Irish elections. Other countries have postal voting systems and so on but that is a discussion for a different day. I am not particularly concerned about the European Commission's criticism but I am concerned to get this Bill over the line. The first step is to get all of the political blocks within the Oireachtas to agree to this Bill. The discussion around this issue has already begun and many of those who are engaged in it are far ahead of the political parties. There will be a genuine welcome across the board for this. As to whether it would pass in a referendum, that is another discussion. Senator Lawless is right in that we would need to do some work on that. There is often a negative reaction to proposals from the Government to change the Constitution, with people using referenda as a way to poke the Government in the eye and so on. However, it is a welcome development and the discussion this morning has been positive.

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to address the committee this morning. We were a little nervous about it and did not know how this meeting would go. We are all new to this structure but it has worked very well this morning.