Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, for his contribution to today's debate. I will come back to the substance of his contribution. I also thank other Members of the House - Deputy Timmy Dooley from Fianna Fáil, Deputy Michael Colreavy from Sinn Féin and Deputy Bernard Durkan from Fine Gael. I further acknowledge the contribution of the other members of the joint committee to the preparation of the report. It is a cross-party report. We managed to come to an agreement among ourselves. I am a member of a Government party, but today my role is as a member of the committee, which I am representing, so I do not feel bound to adopt the Government line. That will become a little more obvious as my conclusion progresses.

I welcome the initiative in the House that allows time in the Chamber to debate the important work that is done by various committees of the House. It is important because it means that committee reports do not just gather dust on shelves but get an airing on the floor of the Chamber, which is an improvement. To return to one of the points Deputy Dooley made, it does show that there have been improvements in the way we operate as a House. We would not be here on a Friday at all if it were not for the changes introduced by the Government in order to make the Dáil a bit more democratic and accountable, and to allow Members from Government parties and Opposition parties to discuss and debate Bills and committee reports. The debate has shown that the issue of voting rights is of concern to all parties in this House.

From our discussions we are aware of the concerns and interest of many members of the diaspora. While I was following the debate on the floor, I was also looking at the Twitter feed. I note that many people are commenting on the debate who are watching from all over the world. A level of disappointment was expressed at the lack of Members in the House. I know that we are represented by all of the main parties here today, but it is a bit disappointing that we did not have a greater level of engagement on this issue. Many important points were raised. Deputy Dooley, on behalf of Fianna Fáil, outlined the importance of finding some way to give our citizens living abroad the right to vote.

He referred to how UK and US citizens have the right to vote and how, as far as Fianna Fáil is concerned, it is time we extended voting rights to our citizens abroad. I very much welcome this.

Deputy Michael Colreavy made the important point that equality should never be compromised, a point with which we all agree. Several Members said we need to be cognisant of the impact of this proposal. I am not sure that we have to be. As far as I am concerned, citizens have the right to vote. For what and for whom they vote is up to them. That is the democratic system in which we live. So what if they vote for a different party? It is their right to do so. They are either full citizens of our State or they are not. They cannot be half-citizens. It is simple as that. We should not fear our citizens living abroad but encourage them to vote and explain the issues to them. We should not patronise them to the extent that we think they would not understand what is going on in our country. We should have confidence in their ability to make the right decision to vote accordingly.

I have known the Minister of State, Deputy Paudie Coffey, for many years and I respect the job he is doing. I know he will have been briefed on this issue by his civil servants. However, that was not a can-do speech from him. It was a speech that gave many reasons as to why this will take time. The language used referred to how we need to be cognisant of the large numbers involved, the cost, the impact and the integrity of the systems involved. It stated there are complex issues that need to be closely examined and the establishment of the commission would require several years to be completed. I am disappointed by this. We can move more quickly. Other countries have moved quickly on this. I fear we will be hammered into this through a court action. We should lead and show our citizens abroad that they are part of the Irish nation, that we respect their views and that we want them involved in our society. As Deputy Michael Colreavy said, we should not be waiting; we should be acting.

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