I have not, I am being honest with the House. We were placed in a very invidious position. We were honest and stated what was our position. We had only two members in Government then but now a substantial element of the Cabinet is comprised of Labour Party Ministers. They have 30-plus Members of the House. In view of that, one would have expected some evidence of commitment by now.
There is no evidence being presented here that this Government is in any way serious about fulfilling the commitment they have continuously given to emigrants to give them the vote in some form or other. Obviously it would have to be provided for in legislation which would have to be very carefully drafted and would necessitate special regulations being made. But the impression is being given, and was certainly given in the speech the then Minister Flynn made in the House on the occasion of that debate, that this was very complex, very difficult, as if it were something new he was being asked to create, which would totally distort the whole election process here, and that we could not possibly touch it with a 40-foot pole. Yet, whenever they met emigrant groups, they said they were in favour of it. There is a long road to be travelled by the Fianna Fáil Party on this issue. They fear change because change may not benefit them and they ignore the benefit it might bring to democracy. The electorate will have to be approached on this issue if it necessitates a referendum, a constitutional change, and allow them to decide. But there appears to be a great reluctance on the part of this Government even to allow the people decide the issue.
In the case of the European Parliament elections to which one of these amendments relates specifically, there is no reference whatsoever to a constitutional referendum being necessary, none whatsoever, all that is required is legislation, a suitable amendment, preferable drafted by the Minister to this Bill to extend the vote to Irish citizens living abroad in certain circumstances, the circumstances outlined in the amendment before us.
Therefore one wonders what is the point of this exercise, of all these great debates and Bills being brought forward. I think it was Deputy Gerry O'Sullivan, now Minister of State at the Department of the Marine, who introduced the Private Members' Bill on behalf of the Labour Party in 1991. Indeed, I note that Deputy Higgins, now Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, in a dhátheangach contribution on that occasion — I cannot quote his whole speech but it is on the record of the House anyway — in volume 406 of the Official Report of 12 March 1991 had this to say:
I hope it is never forgotten an masla do mhuintir na hÉireann, do na daoine atá díbeartha as an tír seo, agus nach ndéanfaidh siad dearmad go deo ar an Aire ná ar an Rialtas nach raibh sásta fiú amháin buncheart an vóta — nil-imid ag caint faoi na sonraí a bheag nó a mhór — a thabhairt dóibh in a dtír féin in ar chuir teip eacnamaíochta iachall orthu í a fhágáil ar imirce.
he hoped that the insult to emigrants would never be forgotten, that insult being on the part of the then Minister for the Environment in refusing the Labour Party Bill to extend votes to emigrants.
Participating in the same debate on the following day, 13 March 1991, as reported at column 1072 of the Official Report the present Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Spring, Leader of the Labour Party stated:
In bringing this Bill before the Dáil the Labour Party decided to take a constructive and courageous step with regard to our emigrants living abroad. Emigration, especially the forced emigration which has been a feature of Irish economic and social life for the last few years, is an uprooting and alienating process. Many of our emigrants end up stateless people unable to vote in the country of which they are citizens, and unable to vote in the country in which they are resident. We in the Labour Party see no reason Irish citizens should be deprived of one of the most basic rights of any citizen simply because they have been forced to live abroad.
Ireland is one of the few remaining countries in the European Community which disenfranchises its emigrants.
He went on to say:
If the Government accept our Bill, this will bring Ireland into line with our EC partners who have provided voting rights for their emigrants in some or all of the elections.
That is the point I made earlier. We are not prepared to extend that right to our emigrants. How can the Irish people be expected to believe Deputy Spring if he speaks in such trenchant terms about the necessity to legislate for the extension of voting rights to emigrants and while in office as a Minister fails to deliver on that commitment? It adds to the cynicism about politicians in Ireland. It does no credit to the Labour Party or to the Minister himself.