Sir, – Recent correspondence regarding voting and the diaspora culminated (Letters November 5th) with Richard Logue offering his answer to the issue by proposing that the Irish abroad be given their own emigrant panel within the Seanad. Besides this surely being the start of a slippery slope of diaspora voting rights, I would suggest a more appropriate change to voting rights, with regard to the Seanad, would be to enable the ordinary resident citizenship to have a vote in Seanad elections. – Yours, etc,
PAT MULLEN,
Dundalk,
Co Louth.
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Sir, – One can agree with Richard Logue that to provide the Irish diaspora with a vote in Seanad elections would be a very positive development. However, it is now all of nine years since we voted to retain the Seanad, based primarily on a promise of electoral reform. Given that since then not one single democratic correction has taken place, I am afraid that voting aspirations for all of the Irish diaspora and any hope of a “win-win” will founder on the rock of political inertia. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN McDONALD,
Terenure,
Dublin 12.