Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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When I use the term “citizen”, I am referring to anyone who is entitled to an Irish passport, be they second generation or even born here. The question arises on how we treat Irish citizens residing in the EU as opposed to those outside it. Should an Irish citizen be only allowed one vote for the European Parliament? What about the Irish citizen residing in Australia? There are mechanics that can be worked out. The principle is that citizens who wish to avail of a franchise that will allow them some capacity to determine the governance of a jurisdiction they feel is important to them should be facilitated. I take Senator Hayden’s point about the guiding principles of the European Union and the shared nature of the way in which we do our business rather than an attachment to nationhood. I am of a similar mind to Deputy Halligan on this.

As for the swamping effect of a potential 400,000 Irish voters in England and Wales, the experience in countries such as Italy, the Dominican Republic and Mexico, which allow their diasporas to vote, shows that there is actually a low take-up of this entitlement. I feel those who left the country more recently will be the ones who will take up the vote, rather than the 60 million people in the United States who could potentially have an Irish passport and claim some ancestry from the old sod. I do not have concerns about swamping or the external vote overtaking the domestic vote.

As Deputy Crowe said, we have to start somewhere and set the ball rolling. Our view is that we should start with presidential and Seanad elections.

We have a view about the composition of the Seanad and how it is elected. In doing so we give a greater participation to the citizens of the State and those outside. That would allow for broader access to the voting system and it could, therefore, be extended in a way that would cover what Senator Hayden mentioned.

Deputies Durkan and Byrne raised the issue of what we would do in the event of our not having an embassy. We must provide some other methodology by which people can cast their votes. If they have registered electronically, for example, we must afford them some kind of postal process or otherwise that allows for the vote to be cast. Deputy Durkan has clearly said he would like to retain the peann luaidhe. Notwithstanding that, I have always been a firm believer that electronic voting and i-voting should not be ruled out. While I accept that we had a difficult experience, it has been made to work in other countries and it should not prevent our revisiting the system. I do not suggest it is a priority, but we need to examine it.