Sir, – A simple solution to the question of voting rights for the Irish abroad would be to make such rights time-limited to people who have already been registered to vote in Ireland. Thus someone moving abroad for career or other reasons could seek an absentee vote for, say, a maximum of 10 years. People with Irish passports who have not previously lived and registered to vote in Ireland would not get a vote as they would not have demonstrated a sufficient commitment to the country. People returning after 10 years and Irish passport-holders coming to live in the country for the first time would be free to register for their vote in the conventional manner. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN O’SULLIVAN,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – Recently it has been proposed and argued that the right to vote in elections should be extended to all holders of an Irish passport regardless of domicile or residence. The idea has warm and woolly sentiment and rhetoric behind it but it is an electorally and constitutionally nonsensical idea. It would create a vast unallocated “constituency” which is impossible to incorporate accurately or proportionately into our electoral system. Numerous constitutional provisions would not only have to be repealed but replaced in granular detail by an electorate that stands to be diluted in influence, confused in representation, and open to being overborne by organised political forces outside this jurisdiction. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL DEASY,
Bandon,
Co Cork.