Ms Ríona Ní Fhlanghaile:

As members will see from the options paper, we have considered a number of other countries and explored what they do and how they do things. They all do things differently to suit themselves. We included a paper from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, IFES, at the back of the options paper. It is a succinct and useful reference. According to it, a country has to do what suits its own circumstances. As such, while we are examining other countries, we must build on what works for the Irish situation.

I have heard many references to how there are 120 countries in the world that do this while we do not. Actually, we are on that list because of the small amount of outside voting that we allow for the Defence Forces and diplomats. I make this point to say that each of the 120 countries is not doing everything. Instead, various countries only do it for certain elections. A tome from the International IDEA - I have forgotten that organisation's full title - is referenced in the options paper and outlines the situation. Some countries only allow this type of voting for certain elections whereas others allow it for all elections. Many countries do not have the large diaspora or, in particular, generous citizenship laws that we have. There is a general agreement that the number of people who will register, and certainly outside the island of Ireland, may be relatively small. That is the pattern internationally, but our starting point is different. We need to learn from others, of course.