On that plan to globalise voting rights for the Presidency, Shane Coleman with a (two )large bucket(s) of cold water in his hands…
…without any detail to accompany the sweeping vision, it all smacks of “never mind the quality, feel the width”.
There are far, far more questions than answers. How would it work? Who would get votes – everybody across the world eligible for an Irish passport, including second and third-generation Irish? Or just those who grew up in Ireland and who left within a set number of years previously? How would people go about casting their vote – could it be online, as some have suggested?
Mr Kenny won’t have to answer these questions. His successor will have the awkward business of working out the finer points.
The point has been made that this is not new or radical – there are 115 states globally with some form of voting for non-resident citizens. But few, if any, of these countries are comparable to Ireland, which has been exporting sizeable chunks of its population for 200 years.
The Irish diaspora is said to be as high as 70 million globally. Imagine the impact it would have if even 1-2pc were enfranchised.
And a final nod to Martyn Turner…
