Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A man from my own neck of the woods, Michael Tierney, was a very eminent Senator. It, of course, made sense in terms of inclusion of the Protestant minority and their voice in the new State to represent Trinity College adequately and fairly, but we need to be honest and say that this is an anachronism. I would rather see a generous election of Senators by citizens with no reference to specific vocational groups anymore, either at the university level or in terms of the other vocational representation. I am uncomfortable with the proposal to expand the electorate abroad, or even to Northern Ireland, unless one does it by way of Taoiseach's nominee or a small subgroup to represent the diaspora, to speak. It is estimated that there are approximately 1 million Irish-born people living abroad with more than 800,000 Irish passports in circulation abroad. Realistically, the vast majority of these have settled abroad and do not intend to return to Ireland. There is very big leap between the proposal to grant a vote to these citizens in presidential elections - it is a largely ceremonial office - and granting them a vote in a direct election to a law-making Chamber. Citizens abroad who do not pay tax and have any day-to-day input into Irish society should not be given such large influence.

I accept that if we were to move away from the university franchise, there should be some means of allowing Irish people abroad to continue to have a voice but this should probably be achieved other than through the direct election of Senators in the way that the rest of the population at home engage in same. I am conscious I have gone over time and I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for not closing my contribution to this debate down sooner.