Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I wish to share time with a number of Deputies. Tá áthas orm bheith anseo anocht chun an t-ábhar seo a phlé. I am delighted to speak on this proposal to extend voting rights in presidential elections to our diaspora. The matter was discussed in detail during the fifth report of the Constitutional Convention. Three quarters of the membership of the convention recommended that we extend the franchise to citizens resident in Northern Ireland and overseas. The Government has been far too slow to move on this. Not opposing the Bill is the minimum we should do. Across Europe, 40 countries provide voting rights to their citizens who live overseas. Last year the European Commission criticised our Government for not allowing citizens who are resident in other EU member states to vote in our national elections and it claimed this might impinge on the freedom of movement of people.

The Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, which I chair and of which Deputy Crowe is a member, examined this issue. We held a number of meetings with academics, political parties, ambassadors from other member states resident in Ireland and representatives of the Irish diaspora overseas. We published a report in which we recommended that the Government extend voting rights. Last week our committee visited London in the context of the "Should we stay or should we go?" discussion they are having vis-à-visthe European Union, or "Brexit versus Bremain" as it has also been referred to. We met with a number of people, including Jennie McShannon of the Irish in Britain organisation, and Dean Duke and others from Votes for Irish Citizens Abroad. They impressed upon us that they felt their citizenship was being impaired due to their inability to vote. As somebody who was a member of the Irish diaspora for 17 years, I know exactly how they feel. I share their views and I believe it is time we righted this wrong.

Last week the Government, in the form of the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with special responsibility for the diaspora, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, published a paper outlining the issues to be faced in order to proceed with extending the franchise. He posed a number of questions. First, he asked how we would determine the electorate for presidential elections. A full implementation of the recommendations of the constitutional convention would include all citizens resident in the State and citizens resident outside the State, equating to 4.5 million voters within the State and 3.5 million outside the State. That would mean some 43% of the electorate would be living outside the State. That is an issue for some people, who see 43% as high. When my committee published our report several non-committee members of the Oireachtas approached me accusing the committee of handing over the presidency to another political party. I will not pull any punches here - they felt that giving people outside Ireland the right to vote would mean the Sinn Féin candidate had an advantage. As an ex-member of the diaspora I find that view point patronising in the extreme. As someone who spent almost two decades living outside this country I was still able to maintain my knowledge of what was going on at home and my judgment about who and what was right and wrong for our country. As far as I am concerned, a chameleon is a chameleon whether one is looking at it from one mile away or from 1,000 miles away. Our President represents our country and people decide on their votes wisely. They do not waste their votes, as we saw with the election of President Michael D. Higgins. I know what our diaspora looks like and I know what makes them tick. I trust them with their votes.

The Minister also raised practical issues such as the costs involved in organising voting for people resident outside the State. We can be clever here. There are many systems now in place worldwide which allow for secure Internet voting and I have had discussions with providers who do this in many different countries. Granted, we have had a poor experience with electronic voting but time has moved on, technology has improved and acceptance has increased. The next presidential election should allow Internet voting at home and abroad.

The Minister of State with special responsibility for the diaspora, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, also mentioned the potential legislative and constitutional changes that would be needed. I do not think these issues will be contentious as all our citizens would support them. No family is without relations who live overseas, many of whom want to return and all of whom treasure their Irish identity. I have no illusion about whether we will see progress on this before the next election. Sadly, I do not think the Government will push this as a priority but I hope that in the absence of progress in the next year this will form part of the election manifestos of the main parties in the country. Within the Labour Party I will work to ensure it forms part of ours.

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