David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

It is the people who are elected who should decide what any convention should look at, not people who happen to sit on that convention. We are the people who are elected and especially those members in the Dáil who should make those choices. The choice open to us is that we can continue to pay lip service to the notion that people who live on the island of Ireland are Irish and are part of the Irish nation and we can pay lip service to all of those who have emigrated. I have heard on many occasions people in this House talk about the forgotten Irish who live in different parts of the globe, in England, America, Australia and who left for many different reasons. Some left because they were persecuted or for different reasons, but they are Irish citizens and they have every right to be part of the Irish nation.

The Constitution defines the nation and the constitution talks about all the people who live on the island of Ireland as being part of that nation. The Good Friday Agreement defined citizenship and made it absolutely and explicitly clear that one can be Irish and British if one lives in the North. I fully accept that. If we voted for the Good Friday Agreement and accepted it, then why are we not allowing those very same people who voted by a majority for the Good Friday Agreement to vote in a presidential election. We do not have the courage of our convictions as politicians to follow that through.

Some Senators asked why the motion is being moved now? This is the first opportunity we have been given to do so. We do not have Private Members' time. This is the only opportunity that we have been given so far and we could have put down motions on the economy, social issues, but instead we tabled a motion that we believed would get support because of the stated commitment of all political parties to the ideals which were behind the motion. All the political parties, including the Labour Party and Fine Gael, say they support voting rights for citizens in the North and abroad, but when it comes to supporting this motion, they cannot simply bring themselves to do it. There is a partitionist mindset at play. Members are unable to accept that people who are born in the North of Ireland are part of the Irish nation because they see the nation stopping at the Border in Dundalk or Drogheda or elsewhere, whereas I see the nation as encompassing all the people of Ireland. If we want to continue to pay lip service that is fine, but there are many across this island involved in sport, business, politics and across the spectrum who agree with this motion. I mentioned the One Voice One Vote campaign. Mark Durcan and Margaret Richie, former leaders of the SDLP, signed the petition. Many people signed the petition - - - - -