Neale Richmond
Dublin Rathdown · Fine Gael · Ireland
“I am grateful to Deputy Ó Murchú for raising this once again. I welcome the comments by his party leader this week when she declared that this is a great State and a great place to live in. It makes a welcome change from most other days of the week.”
“Another thing that must be looked at when discussing a united Ireland is that a lot of work has to be done to show example from political representatives on the base level of sectarianism that at least two other colleagues on these benches and I put up with every day.”
“They could not decide among themselves in the "Yes" campaign whether they would have a new form of sterling or a currency pegged to sterling or adopt the euro. That is not an issue for us. We join the European Union and we join the euro. It is simple as.”
“I will make a few concluding remarks to follow on from some of the points made by the Taoiseach in his opening iteration because in his 20 minutes he did not cover them all.”
“Over the coming months, we will act impartially serving as an honest broker among our fellow member states to progress many files in areas that were raised here today. Our work will respond to the overall interests and needs of the union, its member states and citizens across Europe.”
“More pertinently to the Deputy's questions, very real charges have been placed in The Irish Times and by other investigative journalists stating that the amounts of alumina being produced from Aughinish are going indirectly to the Russian war machine. If that is the case, it is completely unacceptable.”
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“However, the Minister, Deputy Heydon, has no objection in principle to any measure that may improve the overall regulation of the dog breeding sector and support public safety and the welfare of dogs, and he is more than happy to engage with the Senator directly to achieve that.”
“The dog control stakeholder group, established in 2024 by the Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, has been tasked with considering the policy and legislative matters with regard to the control of dogs. The stakeholder group meets regularly, and the work of the group is wide-ranging and complex in nature. The group's remit includes considering the need for legislative change. This requires in-depth analysis and consultation to ensure amendments are robust, fit for purpose, implementable and deliver the best outcomes for communities and for dogs themselves. This work will take some time.”
“An amendment to the initial XL bully regulations came into force on 9 June 2025. The amended regulations define a review process in circumstances where a dog owner may disagree with the determination of a dog warden that a dog not in possession of a certificate of exemption meets the physical conformation standard. If, following review, a dog is determined to be an XL bully-type dog, the review process allows for the relevant owner, including a charitable organisation, to obtain a certificate of exemption which will allow them to keep the dog until the end of its natural life, provided that the dog was born before 10 December 2024. If a person or organisation does not wish to keep an XL bully-type dog, they can surrender the dog to their local authority dog warden service where the dog will be euthanised in a humane manner.”
“A small number of animal welfare organisations sought a judicial review of the regulations. As part of this process, the organisations concerned had sought an injunction to extend the 1 February deadline for rehoming XL bully-type dogs in their care until the judicial review process was completed. This injunction was denied by the High Court. Therefore, it remains illegal for these organisations to rehome an XL bully-type dog after 1 February. As outlined in the regulation, the only dogs that were permitted to be rehomed up to 1 February were those that were in the care of the relevant bodies before 1 October 2024. It is illegal for any person or organisation to rehome an XL bully-type dog after 1 February of this year. I am informed that the case has been settled and the matter is due for mention in the High Court on 15 July.”
“Charitable organisations were also able to apply for certificate of exemptions for XL bully-type dogs in their care during this period if they wished. As part of the regulations, any registered charitable organisation that had an XL bully-type dog in its care before 1 October 2024 had until before 1 February 2025 to rehome the dog to a new owner. Since 1 February 2025, if an owner is found to have an XL bully type-dog in his or her possession, as determined by the dog warden in accordance with the XL bully-type dog physical conformation standard, without a certificate of exemption or proof of application for a certificate of exemption, the dog warden may seize the dog and have the dog euthanised in a humane manner. In addition, such owners may be charged with an offence under the Control of Dogs Act 1986.”
“It is acknowledged that XL bully is not a recognised breed and that XL bullies are a cross of restricted breeds. Therefore, it was unanimously decided by the implementation team that was established to develop the regulations that the term used with regard to describing the dogs should be XL bully-type. The only legally recognised method of identification of a dog as an XL bully-type in Ireland is by use of the physical conformation standard contained in the regulations. The ban was brought in over two stages to give XL bully-type dog owners who wished to keep their XL bully-type dog the time to obtain a certificate of exemption. There was a four-month period between 1 October 2024 and before 1 February 2025 where owners were able to apply for a certificate of exemption.”
“I thank Senator Andrews for raising this matter. I ask him to bear with me. I have a slightly lengthy answer which I will deliver on behalf of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Heydon, who has asked me to take this Commencement matter. The Control of Dogs (XL Bully) Regulations 2024, SI 491 of 2024, that banned XL bully dogs came into force in two stages beginning on 1 October 2024, with a full ownership ban coming into force on 1 February 2025. The ban was brought in by the then Minister for Rural and Community Development, who was responsible for dog control at that time. The XL bully-type dog is a variant of the wider American bully breed. It is typically larger in height and body shape and more muscular than other American bully-type breeds such as the micro, pocket, standard and classic breeds.”
“It is important to say that I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Education and Youth, as opposed to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The Senator will understand the need for the Department of Education and Youth to make sure there are qualified psychologists coming into NEPS in particular. That goes to the heart of the issue at play. I have been assured by the relevant Ministers that this course will be of the highest standard and will be fully integrated and aligned with the wider governmental need in the education sector, but it will not be either-or. Other supports for training in the wider scheme will be made available. I will be more than happy to take that forward for the Senator.”
“They will also gain expertise working with multidisciplinary teams with continually evolving opportunities for such work within the education sector, including as part of the multidisciplinary team in the north-east inner city, working with other multidisciplinary teams in education, including the education therapy support service and the new national therapy service which will be introduced from this year into special schools. I fully understand the points made and the career-wide bona fides of the Senator in this regard. However, a deliberate decision has been taken to focus on NEPS. It is not to exclude other services. Other areas will be provided for. I am more than happy to make the Senator's points to the Minister directly and to the president of the university. However, there is method in the process here.”
“Over the three-year programme, trainees will develop expertise in the core skills of assessment, intervention, consultation, training and research within a variety of educational and service settings. They will gain hands-on experience working with children, young people, families and professionals, ensuring they are well prepared to support the learning, development and emotional well-being of children and young people.”
“The Department is extending its bursary scheme to support these students and the programme will support a substantial increase in the number of qualified educational psychologists available to NEPS. This new programme is a significant step forward in the Government's commitment to significantly increase the number of college places for educational psychologists as outlined. I can absolutely reassure the Senator that this programme will adhere to the very highest standards of education and training that are in line with international accreditation standards for educational psychologists. The NEPS service is committed to supporting this programme, as it does the other professional training programmes, through the provision of practice placements, supervisory support and input to the training itself.”
“NEPS is committed to employing the graduates of the courses supported by the education bursaries but unfortunately these existing courses provide fewer than 15 graduates annually to NEPS. If our ambition is to grow the statutory National Educational Psychological Service in the way I have described, we need a complete change in mindset and a willingness to work in new ways to make this happen. The Minister was delighted, last March, to welcome the announcement by Maynooth University of its intention to commence a new professional training programme for educational psychology, which will start, as the Senator set out, in September. This course is much needed. After a competitive interview process, 20 candidates of the highest calibre have now signed up to start their professional training on this programme.”
“In other countries there is an educational psychologist for approximately every 1,900 children, so there is a very significant gap which we need to address. Bridging that gap will require approximately 550 educational psychologists, which means an additional 330 psychologists working in the system. The Department of Education and Youth has progressed a number of initiatives over the last few years in order to increase the supply of educational psychologists including running annual recruitment campaigns and providing bursaries to students in the two existing programmes. The House may also be aware that there are only two courses in Ireland providing professional training programmes for educational psychologists and, as Senator Clonan laid out, graduates are shared across the education and health sectors.”
“I am grateful to Senator Clonan for raising this issue. The importance of the National Educational Psychological Service, which he raised, is not lost on this Government. It provides a critical service to almost 1 million children and young people and almost 100,000 staff who work in our primary, post-primary and special schools daily. The Government has set its commitment to double the number of educational psychologists in schools. There are 240 educational psychologists in NEPS but, as with any service, there are ongoing vacancies due to statutory leave, retirements and promotion so to really deliver for children we need so many more in our system as a matter of urgency. To give some idea of the scale of the need, there is one NEPS psychologist for every 4,600 children in schools in Ireland.”
“I will ensure the relevant Departments look to see if the SME test should be applied. I am not ruling that out. I just wanted to be frank and direct to make sure I was not misleading the Chamber about what can be achieved by the SME test on this compared with other areas of policy or legislation where it may be applied. However, the case the Senator has laid out, not only here this morning but over the last number of years along with colleagues, is very coherent and needs to be borne in mind. I appreciate the role of the Judicial Council. I acknowledge and respect its independence and it is important that it is independent, but we have a decision as legislators to make and we have to make that mindful of all the impacts it may have.”
“Speaking personally, although I am probably breaking the rules here, I would be very concerned about the introduction of the test. I have heard the very real concerns laid out by people who do not usually agree with each other on this area. We heard it this morning on the radio and have seen it over recent days and weeks. It needs very serious reflection by all parts of government and the Oireachtas. I have no objection in principle to the application of the SME test but I am not sure that is the exact tool that is necessary in this regard due to the nature of the system by which these recommendations are brought to the Houses.”
“We have no ability to differentiate or to set a different level. That is a matter for an independent body. The application of the SME test is a little more complicated than perhaps I would like it to be. It has been used over 20 times in legislation since it was introduced last year under the Minister, Deputy Burke, but the test is a matter for all Departments to consider in respect of policy and legislation under their remits. It is not simply a matter for the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. It would also have to take in the Departments of Finance and justice as well feedback from all other affected Departments, which, on something such as this, is all of them. As I said, whether to accept the personal injury guidelines is a matter for the Oireachtas.”
“The Injuries Resolution Board alone has seen the volume and value of personal injuries awards reduced by 25% and 39%, respectively, over the period from 2019 to 2024, which included the introduction of the personal injury guidelines. Furthermore, the volume of claims in this period dropped by 33%. However, the Judicial Council, which is entirely independent in its function, reviewed the personal injury guidelines as set out in the Judicial Council Act 2019 and now proposes to increase the personal injuries guidelines by 16.7%. In accordance with section 7(2)(B) of the Judicial Council Act 2019, the next step is for the Minister for justice to lay a draft of the amendments to the personal injuries guidelines before each House of the Oireachtas. That is a process by which we can either accept or reject the recommendations.”
“Turning to the specific matter, for the interest of the House and in direct reply to the Senator I will lay out a little about the personal injuries guidelines in the Act and the role of the Judicial Council, what the process is and where the SME test may be applicable. There is no point in me repeating to the Senator the efforts the Government has made in relation to insurance or the importance given to it in the programme for Government. For clarity, the introduction of the personal injuries guidelines came in April 2021 and was a key outcome of the action plan on insurance reform of 2020. It has brought about much reform in the claims settlement framework in Ireland. The NCID has consistently provided evidence to demonstrate the positive impact the personal injury guidelines have had on lowering costs across all settlement channels.”
“I thank the Senator sincerely for raising this timely and pertinent matter. Before I deliver the reply on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Burke, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the Senator's long-standing personal, professional and political commitment in this area. It is an area to which she brings a great level of familiarity, and one that I would imagine is the rival of any Member of either House of this Oireachtas. It is something I have seen first-hand in my previous roles in the Department of Finance, where I looked after insurance, and in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as it was, where I looked after SMEs and small business.”
“I know that is of little succour to the many Deputies and Senators, particularly those who are no longer here, who consistently raised issues and were told this would come in the second half of the decade. There is funding available. Again, it is down to the options and feasibility report by the local authority to make apparent the real necessity of these works. It is fitting that we conclude this debate in putting on the record our shared desire to make our roads safer on this fateful day.”
“I am glad to hear that the response was of some use. We look at the quantums available, as I alluded to at the outset of my initial response, in terms of the capital spending budget, not necessarily for new national road projects but the €2.9 billion allocated for the protection and renewal of the existing national road network, with a considerable amount, €502 million, made available this year. The Deputy will recall that we were both in the previous Dáil and we raised many issues in this Chamber as Topical Issues and I received issues under Commencement matters in the other Chamber. There has been a very distinctive step change in terms of the funding available in this half of the decade for national road projects.”
“Perhaps we are trying to find out exactly what needs to happen here. I hope we can achieve something this afternoon to do just that.”
“The Minister for Transport understands from TII that Meath County Council is considering developing a scheme in Carlanstown. There are a number of potential road safety improvements, mainly relating to vulnerable road user facility provision and continuity through the village. I am open to correction, but it is my understanding, and this is where we need to get to the nub of the issue, and it is welcome that the Deputy has raised this in the House in order to do that, that no feasibility and options report has yet been drafted by the relevant local authority. Once a feasibility report is drafted, Meath County Council can engage with TII regarding the progression of the scheme. That is what I have in the reply before me. I do not know if that is contrary to what the Deputy said.”
“As the greater portion of this funding becomes available in the second half of this decade, this has meant there has been a constraint on the funding available for new projects in 2025. However, approximately €502 million in Exchequer capital funds was provided for national roads through TII to local authorities in 2025. It is worth noting that this year approximately €650,000 was allocated for the construction of new national roads in Meath, with an additional €5.2 million being allocated for the improvement of the existing network. The allocation for protection and renewal of the existing national road network will fund a range of activities, including road safety improvements, pavement renewal, maintenance of bridges and structures, and measures to ensure the network can withstand the increased number of severe weather events.”
“TII ultimately delivers the national roads programme in line with Project Ireland 2040, the national planning framework and the NDP. The Government has earmarked €5.1 billion for capital spending on new national roads projects from 2021 to 2030 as part of the NDP. This funding will enable improved regional accessibility across the country as well as compact growth, which are key national strategic outcomes. The funding will provide for the development of numerous national road projects, including the completion of projects which are already at construction stage and those close to it, as well as the development of a number of others. In addition, €2.9 billion was allocated for the protection and renewal of the existing national road network.”
“I thank the Deputy for expressing condolences in the House. I suppose when he submitted this Topical Issue, he did not think we would be thinking of tragedies on our roads and indeed more high-profile ones. It is a timely reminder. The Ceann Comhairle has such a strong track record on road safety, it is appropriate we take a moment before discussing this specific issue. As the Deputy is aware, the Minister is responsible for overall policy and Exchequer funding with regard to the national roads programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with Transport Infrastructure Ireland under the Roads Acts 1993 to 2015 and in line with the NDP, the operation and management of individual national roads is a matter for TII in conjunction with the local authorities concerned.”
“With regard to the issues the Deputy raised in her second intervention, I will bring them to the attention of the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan. On the provision of school places in Wicklow town and Rathnew, I know there is ongoing consultation. It has started. It is easy to say there are adequate places for a wide geographic area and that it comes down to choice, based either on ethos or family. Crucially, there could be a critical mass of numbers that perhaps is not being captured. This is a really worthy debate that impacts every constituency but particularly commuter belt constituencies like ours and like those of most of the Members in the Chamber.”
“The point has been made that the Department uses data from a range of sources, including child benefit data, enrolments and information on new residential developments, to plan for school place needs. This is one of the key issues. It is one of the biggest opportunities we have as elected representatives. We are not a data sheet. We are on the ground. Every single one of us is either in the schools as a parent or guardian or just visiting to give talks. We engage with our school communities on so many different issues. It is our responsibility, as elected officials from all parties and none, to be those eyes and ears on the ground. When there are issues with delays of allocation of resources, particularly for pupils who need special education services, that gives us an even greater responsibility.”
“I thank the Deputy for using the time available to highlight a really important issue. Being married to a special education teacher, I hear about this quite regularly, as the Deputy can imagine. For anyone who thinks politicians are going on holidays in two weeks' time, I can assure them not only are we not but our school leaders and teachers certainly are not on holidays at the moment. This is perhaps the busiest and most stressful time, particularly for school principals, which Deputy Dolan alluded to in his intervention. Two weeks ago, I took a similar Topical Issue tabled by Deputy Malcolm Byrne. The original part of this Topical Issue was on the need for national school places in Wicklow town and Rathnew.”
“This is something we can all get behind in terms of simply looking after the primary school needs of Wicklow town and Rathnew. In the previous Dáil, we debated school places for second level in north Wicklow at length, and also in Newtownmountkennedy. As the Deputy knows, our constituencies are very alike. This is an issue happening in Dublin Rathdown, just as it is in Wicklow and Wicklow-Wexford. Whatever I can do to assist that process beyond party political lines, I am more than happy to do it.”
“These include extension projects for Pádraig Naofa National School, Scoil na Coróine Mhuire and Wicklow Educate Together National School, which will provide both mainstream and special educational needs classes. The Deputy has made a very clear request for a departmental official to be sent to meet with those principals. Unfortunately, I am not in a position to guarantee that as I am not a line Minister in the Department but I have no hesitation in passing on that request to the Minister. I am aware that two of the Deputy's constituency colleagues from my party have engaged with and have visited these schools in the past few weeks, including the one with my big brother. I do not need to name names in the House, but the Deputy knows where I am going.”
“It is expected there will be clarity on these allocations over the course of the summer period and this will allow the Department of Education and Youth to plan its capital investment programme for the 2026-2030 period, in line with prioritised needs and reflecting, as appropriate, wider Government priorities. Maximising existing capacity in schools to meet needs is very important, as the Deputy has alluded to in the case of at least one school in her area. The Department of Education and Youth is continually planning for and investing in existing and new schools to ensure every child in the State has access to a school place. With regard to the Wicklow school planning area, there are a number of active projects at primary level which increase that capacity.”
“While the Department is aware of enrolment pressures and demand for additional school places in some areas, including Wicklow town and Rathnew, and south County Dublin, there is generally provision across the country, which I think we all can accept, notwithstanding the demographic pressures and others that are driving these factors. As part of the NDP review process, all Departments, including the Department of Education and Youth, are currently engaging with the Department of public expenditure and reform with respect to NDP allocations for the period 2026-2030.”
“As the Deputy will know, I am very aware of this issue and I have been lobbied intensely by the local councillors. I will lay out a few points for the interest of the Chamber before I get to the meat of the ask, as is appropriate in such a debate. It is important to state for the record that the annual enrolment process for new junior infants at primary and new first-years at post-primary is a very large-scale operation. It is transacted at close to 4,000 schools across the country, involving some 140,000 pupils. I know because my daughter is one of them for next year.”
“However, the Deputy asked for something to happen a lot sooner than that. I am more than happy to pass that request on to the Minister. It should be possible to facilitate a meeting between the Deputy and the Minister.”
“As I outlined previously, the Department has reviewed the enrolment criteria and updated the circular. The updates to the circular were informed by robust engagement with the speech and language therapy service in the National Council for Special Education, the Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists, and speech and language therapists in the HSE. It was a multifaceted process. There has also been ongoing engagement with school principals on enrolment into these classes for the coming school year. In the medium term, the circular will be subject to review, typically one year after publication. This will involve the full range of education and health stakeholders, as I outlined. Issues identified in the implementation of the circular that require amendment will be made as necessary at that stage.”
“In terms of co-morbidity, it is important to clarify that the criteria for access to the DLD-SSD class do not exclude children with any co-morbid conditions, such as Down's syndrome. The circular acknowledges that both the DLD and SSD of unknown origin diagnoses may have co-morbidities. A co-morbid condition is one that exists alongside another and is not causative. The Department acknowledges that there may be children for whom their SSD is of unknown origin but there are co-morbid conditions and there are others where the SSD results from a particular medical or biomedical diagnosis. The circular will be subject to review, and will involve the full range of education and health stakeholders. I will make it my business to ensure that Deputies who raise the issue in this House will also have the opportunity to feed into it.”
“This review has been completed and an updated circular, Circular 0024/2025, was published, as alluded to by the Deputy, on 20 March 2025. This circular, Criteria for Enrolment in Special Classes for Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) or Speech Sound Disorder (SSD), is available online. The term SSLD will no longer apply to entry to these classes and will be replaced instead with developmental language disorder-speech sound disorder, DLD-SSD. This amendment will apply, in some cases, for the 2026-2027 school year, as the admission process had already been completed for 2025-2026. Schools were notified to that effect on the publication of the revised circular. The revised criteria see, among other changes, the removal of reference to IQ as one of the entry criteria for these classes.”
“Some schools indicated that there were difficulties caused by the divergence between the DLD diagnostic criteria and the narrower SSLD definitions, as well as the requirement for psychological assessments to establish children's intellectual ability. The inspectorate report noted that the disparity in definition between the DLD diagnostic and original SSLD enrolment criteria must be addressed as a matter of urgency to ensure that the pupils most in need of this specialised support will continue to be prioritised for enrolment. It will be equally important that pupils with lesser language needs, but who might fit into the broader DLD diagnostic category, are supported more appropriately throughout the educational system. In September 2024, the Department undertook a review of Circular 0038/2007.”
“As envisaged by SERC, the classes were designed to provide a time-limited, targeted intervention for children with severe impairments in their skills of understanding and expressing themselves through spoken language. The inspectorate division of the Department published a composite report on the quality of provision for children attending these classes in 2021. While, overall, the inspectorate reported positively on this provision, significant issues were noted. These included: enrolment criteria for entry to the special SSLD classes used at the time did not align neatly with the current diagnostic definition of developmental language disorder, DLD, which has been used by speech and language therapists in Ireland and internationally since 2017.”
“I sincerely thank Deputy Dolan for raising this important matter and allowing me the opportunity to outline the changes on behalf of the Government and his party colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for special education, Deputy Michael Moynihan, that have been recently made to the enrolment criteria for specific speech and language disorder special classes. There are 63 special classes for pupils with specific speech and language disorder attached to mainstream primary schools in dispersed geographical locations. These classes cater for pupils with a very specific set of language needs for a maximum of two years. The enrolment criteria for these classes originate from the recommendations of the special education review committee report, SERC, in 1993.”
“We are not opposing this motion and we are committing tonight to work with all Members of this House, of all parties and none, to deliver this.”
“Deputy Kenny knows that I know the Border as well as anyone, as the proud son of a Cavan woman and a Cavan man. However, I want to win this debate. I want to win this debate because it is the right thing to do. We absolutely can win it, but much like a question on unification it is not simply about naming the date. It is about formulating a campaign. It is about presenting a very clear question to the people that will show what happens if they vote for this. It will show how people will be facilitated to vote and how we will capture the citizens abroad. I say to Deputy McDonald, trying to be collegiate and work in a positive agreement on this, that this is how we can work together to get this delivered.”
“This is something that requires thoughtful and considered debate, and I am absolutely committed to working with every Member of this House to further this so that we can name a date for referendum. Deputy McDonald asked me what conversations have been had with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. I am not privy to the exact nature, as she will understand, but I know that conversation is ongoing, and there is a commitment at Cabinet level, as the Tánaiste has alluded to, to make sure this can be reflected on by Government so that we can put a question to the people. I hope people will agree, and take this at face value, that first and foremost it must be a question we could win, because we can all stand here and use this as an issue to bring up whatever we want.”
“I am not looking to point fingers at any Deputy. I am just providing reflection. This referendum was proposed in 2019 and then Covid hit. We have to be cognisant of what winning this referendum will require, as with a further referendum in due course that I look forward to campaigning alongside Deputy O'Hara and others in. We have to be cognisant of what the electorate will be putting at us in the debate. I absolutely agree with the point Deputy Mitchell made about commentators and others in the media and possibly in these Houses who deliberately pursued a disinformation campaign about what Sinn Féin is trying to achieve with this motion and what the Government is trying to achieve with this policy, going back to the diaspora strategy launched by the then Minister of State, Ciarán Cannon.”
“I firmly believe, as I am sure all Deputies do, that approaching the matter with such a mindset would be undemocratic. I said this in the Seanad eight years ago in response to a similar Sinn Féin motion. I think it was the then Senator Ó Donnghaile who looked me square in the eyes and told me to tell him what I thought. I have no hesitation saying, like my predecessor Ciarán Cannon, who was in the ministerial chair in the Seanad, that I fundamentally believe in expanding the presidential franchise to all Irish citizens, regardless of where they live on this island or around the world, but we have to win that debate. This is the challenge before us this evening. How do we win that debate? To be frank, we have had two referendums in the past 12 to 14 months that most people in this Chamber backed, and we got a fair kicking on them.”
“Operationally, a number of practical implementation issues will have to be addressed, including the establishment of online-based voter registration and the extension of postal voting. That is straightforward and there is no doubt we can do it in the modern age. However, there is something I have a real fear about, and it is not in any way to diminish the commitment. In order to achieve this, it does not really matter what any of us says in this Chamber this evening or what the vote is on a motion that is not being opposed by the Government. It will require constitutional change. What is as important as having the discussion is that we do not underestimate the challenge constitutional change brings. One charge often raised in this debate is that we do not favour an extended electorate because we do not like the result it would deliver.”
“That is something on which we can hopefully all rise together and, in Deputy O'Reilly's words, work together on. On the specific point, the Government has always recognised the commitment in the Good Friday Agreement that allows all the people of Northern Ireland to identify as Irish or British or both. I was pleased to see that not only was the issue of voting rights in presidential elections debated recently in the Northern Ireland Assembly but that a vote in the positive was passed. I support that. We have also been supportive of the work previously undertaken by the Convention on the Constitution, but we must be frank that the matter is not without challenges, even if these challenges are easily overcome.”
“However, when we start making comparisons with Brazil, Poland, France or Italy, it is important to keep it straight because those are jurisdictions that allow votes for those abroad for specific houses in parliament, or in the case of the United States, for taxpayers living abroad. This is where we will get into somewhere we have to provide clarity when talking about comparisons. Deputies Mitchell and O'Hara also mentioned, parallel to this, the case for a united Ireland. Deputy McDonald and I have shared a couple of stages talking about this. I know she read the paper I wrote called "Towards a New Ireland". I am more than happy to join anyone of any party, and their supporters, to make sure we can achieve that. That has not changed in any instance.”