Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will try to make that point somewhat differently. The NUI register has 113,000 people on it. The figure is extraordinary. Of them, between 35,000 and 40,000 actually vote. The rest are lost somewhere in the diaspora. The point is that it is entirely possible to afford people a postal vote and to have a postal system without extensive electoral fraud. I do not believe there was ever extensive electoral fraud in a university election. Therefore, I do not believe there is any practical problem in providing a postal vote along the lines suggested by the Manning committee.

I mention it because some people in the House are afraid of what would happen if people in Northern Ireland, who are Irish citizens and who owe a duty of loyalty to this State, assert their Irish citizenship. If we give them the vote, it does not mean the barbarian hordes are going to be at the gates or will change the entire system in the country or in this House, for that matter. The basis of this Bill is the notion that candidates have to go and look for the votes to start with.