Sir, – Ian O’Mara (October 11th) appears to have forgotten that the No side in the Seanad referendum has offered methods of expanding the right to vote in Seanad elections without the need to amend the Constitution. Senator Crown and Senators Quinn and Zappone have published Bills promoting just such an expansion of the franchise.
Mr O’Mara also raises the old chestnut we in the diaspora often hear regarding the payment of taxes as some kind of qualification to vote. This uniquely Irish perversion of the classic American freedom slogan would, if applied to citizens resident in the State, would also render them ineligible to vote.
What price democracy? Best not tell the troika we are thinking along those lines. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD LOGUE,
Hammers Lane,
Mill Hill,
London, England.