Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

On this election day, I would like to believe that in the lifetime of the Government we will find a way of including friends, colleagues and family members who have gone abroad so that they can vote in Irish elections. The Leader should ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to attend the House for a debate on how, not if, we are going to do this. We should discuss whether this House can be instrumental in making such a change, as well as the sort of reforms we wanted to bring about and that we all talked about before the election. Many Irish emigrants want to take part in elections here. If citizens of other countries who are living abroad can do so, then I am certain we can do it here. The House should take a lead on this matter.