Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “That Seanad Éireann” and substitute: “, while recognising the complexities and challenges involved, calls on the Government to expedite its consideration of the recommendations in the Fifth Report of the Convention on the Constitution on giving the right to vote at Presidential elections to citizens resident outside the State.”.

I welcome this debate. I also welcome the Minister of State to the House for same. This evening we must also talk about structures.

The last speaker referred to the university elections. I agree with him that we have a system whereby university graduates who live outside of the State can be involved in the decision-making process to elect Senators. I think everyone will accept that the university registers are totally out of date. There is a vast difference between the number of people who vote and the number of people who are registered to vote.If we decide to set up a system then we need to debate how we set up the Seanad electoral system in various jurisdictions.

I agree with what earlier speakers said about Irish people abroad in terms of keeping up to date with events in Ireland. My sister lives in Kenya and has decided to return home. She works 45 miles south of Nairobi but sometimes she is more up to date on Irish events than I am as she keeps in close contact with events here. I am very familiar with people who live abroad but keep up to date with events in Ireland on a daily basis. Sometimes people abroad convey information to me about an event here that occurred a week earlier. I am in constant contact with people with whom I have worked previously who now work in New York or Boston. It is interesting to witness how up to date they are with national affairs and local parish events in Ireland. People definitely have a huge interest in what happens at home. Many Irish people who work abroad take a great interest in what happens here because they hope to return home.The one great thing that has happened in this country over the past four years is we have grown the number of jobs. The number of people leaving the country has decreased and will continue to do so because the growth in jobs, hopefully, will continue. We need to look at the structures if we are speaking about people outside of Ireland having a vote in elections. An issue we need to look at is whether we accept the vote of a person outside the State is equal to that of someone at home. We might complain about the US system of an electoral college, but could we introduce an electoral college system that would allow people to have their say but at the same time the say of the taxpayers in the country is weighted? We need to look at structures if we are to introduce the system throughout the five continents. It is not just about the United States or the UK. A huge number of Irish people work in China, Indonesia and around the globe. The question is how we put all of this together.

The US has a mechanism whereby someone is appointed to monitor ten or 15 people in every class going through the college system to keep the university informed about where they work. Every university in the US is very much up to date on where their graduates are. It is unfortunate that in Ireland we do not have the same system because it would be powerful. Recently I spoke to someone who went to college in the US and wanted to get a new project up and running in Asia. All that person had to do was check with the university to find out what people from the same class or the university were working in the area who could immediately be contacted. It is something our universities should look at.

I welcome the debate but we need to speak more about the structure. We also need to speak about the cost implications. It is important that taxpayers are made aware of what it costs, how reasonable it is and the timeframe required to put together the registers and to set a target date. Until we have this debate we cannot go forward with a referendum because it is not just about having a referendum. In previous referendums there was acceptance the electorate would automatically vote in a particular way. The electorate is very educated now and wants all of the issues on the table. Not all of the issues are on the table with regard to the structures.

At the time of the divorce referendum, I remember asking about the proposed mechanism to be implemented if it was passed and I could not get an answer. The referendum was subsequently lost. If we are serious about this we must have each and every item on the table so the electorate is familiar with every issue. What happens in referendum campaigns is that two weeks or ten days before polling day a new issue arises for which we do not have answers. All of these need to be dealt with.

I welcome the debate. It is important that we have a discussion on it. The Law Reform Commission brought out a report in 2011 and I tabled legislation to deal with the matter five years later. We tend to park issues and it is something with which I do not agree. I welcome the debate and I hope we can move forward from here, but in a structured and carefully planned manner.