John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The other essential element in our reform was that not only would we democratise the election process, but we would totally "de-elitify" it. I may be making up a new word, which has a medical name, neologism. People with various illnesses sometimes make up new words. I hope I am not going to be diagnosed by any of the tens of thousands watching us right now. In an attempt to remove elitism from the selection process, our reform proposes that any citizen could run for the Seanad if he or she had the signatures of 1,000 of his or her fellow citizens. In addition we would extend the franchise to Irish citizens living abroad. Great fears have been expressed over the years that we might have some horribly artificially inflated input of misty-eyed sentimentalised Irish abroad who were not really in contact with the realities of our country. I believe that does a disservice to our diaspora and our system would have a check and balance in it. A person living abroad wishing to vote would need to be a citizen and would need to go to the trouble of registering as a voter in his or her local Irish consular service. This would be a wonderful way to bring the voice of our diaspora into the House.

In addition we proposed extending the franchise to non-Irish citizens legally resident here and who are currently eligible to vote in local elections. We are culturally not used to being an immigrant society. We think of ourselves as the praetorian guard of emigrants but do not tend to think of ourselves as immigrants. We have neither the cultural skill set nor in many ways the administrative procedures to deal with immigrants. In other countries the passage from legitimate immigration status to citizenry is smoothed rather more easily than it has been here. This would give another opportunity for those wonderful contributors to our society who were not born here and have been contributing by working and they may be paying taxes. Their children may be taking part in our sports events and they are enriching the cultural potpourri which is our country.