Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of disenfranchised citizens, I am sure the Minister of State would agree, given that he is a great fan of Daniel O'Connell, that other great Kerryman, that 184 years after the great emancipator secured votes for Catholics, 95 years after women secured the vote and 45 years after people marched in Derry for one man, one vote, that he finds it an affront to democracy that we continue to disenfranchise one in three persons entitled to be an Irish citizen under Articles 2 and 3.

Surely, the Minister of State would find that an affront to any democracy. As the Minister of State is aware, the establishment will never allow citizens outside the State to have a voice in the Dáil. The only place citizens living outside the jurisdiction would ever have a voice would be in a reformed Seanad. Giving them a vote in the presidential election is right and proper, but to turn around and get rid of the one Chamber that they could have a say in, as in other countries, is not right. We are in an appalling list of countries that do not offer votes to citizens living abroad. We are with Malta, Cyprus and Greece among 33 countries in the Council of Europe. Ireland is the fourth country in the list that does not afford votes to citizens living overseas. I call on the Minister of State to give his views-----