If you haven’t submitted yet, it’s not too late. It doesn’t need to be terribly long – put in a few words and help shape Ireland’s future, and your own.

Here is what I submitted today:

1. Summary

(a) Votes for overseas citizens should be considered as an important part of electoral reform, and especially for Dáil elections. Overseas citizens are affected by decisions made in Ireland, and they need genuine political representation that will enable their interests and concerns to be voiced and addressed.

2. Issues affecting emigrants

(a) Opponents sometimes argue that allowing overseas citizens the right to vote would be giving them power to make laws they won’t be affected by. This argument ignores the fact that emigrants are, in fact, affected by many laws and policies enacted in Ireland, in which they have no say.

(b) Overseas citizens who are hoping to return can be particularly affected by decisions made by legislators regarding any of the following:

• Economic policies affecting their ability to return
• Social welfare policies (like the habitual residence condition that has been reported in the Irish Times to have prevented at least 3,000 returning emigrants from accessing social welfare after they returned home to find work or care for elderly relatives, sometimes resulting in destitution.)
• Policies around education and the cost of university education for the children of returning emigrants.
• Spousal immigration laws, which could determine whether an emigrant has the right to return home to live with his or her partner

(c) Decisions that affect citizens while they live abroad, whether or not they plan to return, include those made in areas such as:

• Taxation: Many emigrants are required to pay tax on property they own at home. “Taxation without representation” is a reality.
• Pensions: Many emigrants have worked in Ireland and are entitled to a contributory pension; they will thus be affected by any changes in pension levels.
• Levels of consular staffing and protection, which can affect the safety of citizens during times of crisis
• Levels of emigrant support, which provides for on-the-ground assistance in local Irish communities abroad, often to the most vulnerable of emigrants.
• Broadcasting policy, which regulates the ability of Irish communities in the UK and elsewhere to access Irish radio and television broadcasts as well as access to RTE onine services
• Diaspora engagement policies, including the development of cultural, heritage and business initiatives; network development, return policies, foreign direct investment initiatives, and more.
• Citizenship, which can affect the citizenship rights of spouses and descendents.

(d) Many of these policies have a strong impact on the lives of the Irish abroad, yet the effects of these policies on emigrants and overseas citizens are barely on the radar for Irish policy-makers and voters.

(e) There is thus a real need for meaningful representation of the perspectives of overseas citizens in the government.

3. The problem of balance

(a) Some object to the notion of votes for emigrants based on the idea that the Irish abroad could wield disproportionate power in their home constituencies. This is a legitimate concern, but the solution is not to ban all emigrant and overseas citizens’ voices, but rather to come up with a compromise solution that allows for a more balanced representation of all citizens’ perspectives.

(b) Regional constituencies for emigrants, such as exist in France and Italy, should be explored as the simplest solution for allowing the clearest and most balanced representation of emigrant interests.

4. The problem of taxation

(a) Some people question whether it is fair for overseas citizens to vote when they do not pay taxes. It is often forgotten that the young emigrants of this generation, in particular, who have left Ireland in order to be able to pay their mortgages, will have to pay taxes on those properties. Similarly, older emigrants, many of whom are on limited incomes, may have inherited family properties which are also taxed.
(b) A problem arises when people treat the saying “no representation without taxation” as if it is a well-established democratic principle. It is not. The US is the only developed country in the world that taxes its non-resident citizens on income earned abroad – and yet the US is only one of well over 100 countries around the world that allows its expats to vote. Even in the US, there’s no actual connection between paying taxes and being allowed to vote: the requirement is that non-residents file taxes, but don’t owe them on income under about $90,000. So relatively few US expats actually owe any taxes to the US – yet all US citizens are entitled to vote.
(c) The confusion arises from the fact that the “No representation without taxation” sounds like “No taxation without representation” – a genuine rallying cry for democracy arising out of the American Revolution. “No representation without taxation” is the opposite – it’s a call to restrict democracy; a demand for a return to pre-Enlightenment era when only men of property could vote. We don’t demand the exchange of taxation for voting rights in any other context: the penniless are as entitled to vote as the wealthy, and we don’t exclude net beneficiaries of taxation from voting.

5. The distinction between “citizens” and “the diaspora”

(a) In the public debate over emigrant voting, there seems to be some confusion about whether the vote should be for emigrants, the 3 million citizens living around the world, or for the wider diaspora estimated at 70 million. Yet few, if any, advocates of emigrant voting rights are calling for the diaspora to be allowed to vote.

(b) The Constitution currently, it could be argued, supports votes for all citizens, but not to the wider diaspora. Article 2 makes a clear distinction between them:

It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation. That is also the entitlement of all persons otherwise qualified in accordance with law to be citizens of Ireland. Furthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.

(c) The Irish Nation, thus, is specifically meant to be comprised of everyone who has Irish citizenship. The Constitution states that there is a distinction between citizens, no matter where they live, (who are entitled to be part of the Irish Nation), and the wider diaspora (“the people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage”). The worldwide population of citizens have a claim on the Irish Nation, but the non-citizens of the diaspora have merely a ‘special affinity’ that is to be cherished but which offers no such claim.

(d) Article 1 sets out the rights of the Irish nation:

The Irish nation hereby affirms its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions.

(e) This begs the question: If the self-determination right of the nation is “inalienable, indefeasible and sovereign”, how is it just or appropriate that a significant part of the Irish nation is deprived of that right?

I think my dad deserves a mention on this site. The experiences of him and my mother, both emigrants from the 1950s-era outflow, were the inspiration for my initial interest in emigration. They always remained as proud of being Irish people as they were of being American citizens, switching their passports to blue and raising their children in suburban New York but always calling Ireland “home”.  They – like so many others of their generation – maintained their loyalty to Ireland throughout their whole lives. If I’m honest, I’ve sometimes questioned whether this loyalty  has always been fully deserved, and it’s probably this question more than any other that has inspired my work on this site. But that’s for another day.

I was really moved by what one of my friends wrote to me after my dad’s death: “Your Dad was part of the best generation to represent us in the States – they repaid their hosts by working hard, raising families and living by good values. You can be very proud of him.” And I am.

I’ll just repost his obituary here:

Columbus (Colm) Bowden died in New City, New York on Jan. 19, 2013, a week before his 81st birthday. Colm was born in Balleen, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland on Jan. 27, 1932. He came to New York in 1958, after a few years working in England for the Ford auto company. He married Teresa Philbin from Castlebar, Co. Mayo, in 1964, moving to New City to raise their family in 1968. Colm spent most of his working life as a New York City bus driver. After retiring from MABSTOA in 1987, he worked for the Town of Clarkstown for ten years.

Colm was much loved by his daughters, grandchildren and many friends and family. He will be remembered for his kind spirit, loyal friendship, generous heart and gregarious laughter. An enthusiastic card-player, he enjoyed frequent games of 25 at the Irish Center in Blauvelt, where he also spent numerous happy Sunday mornings cheering for the Kilkenny hurling team. He maintained strong ties to his native country, visiting relatives and old neighbors often; he phoned his sister Lena every week until the end of his life. Colm was very proud to have been named the Kilkennyman of the Year in 1985 by New York’s Kilkenny Association. An avid reader, he always kept up with the news from home, often with clippings sent by his late sister Kit, and the daily papers. A faithful Catholic, he was also a lifelong Pioneer after taking ‘the pledge’ at 18. After his retirement, he joined the Clarkstown Senior Citizens’ Club, where he made many new friends.

Colm loved travelling. Happiest behind the wheel, he drove to explore America and visit friends in such far away places as Montana, Florida and Canada’s Prince Edward Island. He celebrated his 70th birthday with a train trip across the country to San Francisco and his 75th birthday with a journey that fulfilled his lifelong dream of visiting New Zealand and Australia.

Colm is survived by two sisters in Ireland, Lena Downey and Lil Cahill; his daughters, Eileen Feeley of Alexandria, Virginia and Noreen Bowden of New City; and his two grandchildren, James Colm Feeley and Katherine Teresa Feeley. He will also be missed by his many nieces and nephews in Ireland and America. He was predeceased by his sisters, Margaret, May, and Kit (Sister Ethna), and his brother, John. His beloved wife, Teresa, died in 1986.

Back to normal programming soon.

The week was great fun, with chats on topics including the Irish in South America, the visit of the Canadian Immigration Minister, the Late Late Show, the Irish at war around the world, emigrant voting and more.

New curators are needed every week, so if you’d like to take the helm for a week, see how on WorldIrish.com.

One of the extraordinary things about the Kennedy School, apart from the superb professors and my talented classmates, was the fact that, of course, the Kennedy school is named after that great icon of Irish-America, John F. Kennedy, and he is invoked everywhere. In an Irish context, the JFK thing sometimes seems slightly parochial (“There’s the descendent of the man from New Ross, walking the streets of Galway!”), but of course his vision had a global impact, and still has the power to inspire action around the world today.

As the child of Irish immigrants, to be able to study at such an institution  meant a lot to me. My parents left school at the age of 13 and 14; My father didn’t love school, but my razor-sharp mother  left school because she had leave home to work to support her family. She was so hungry for learning that she used to read my textbooks when I was a kid, and she often spoke how she hoped to go back to school eventually. She never got to do that; she didn’t live to see me graduate high school. While I was at Harvard, I often thought of my mother’s unfulfilled dream, and it added a bit of sadness to my pride that I had made it there. I reflected a lot how I had gotten there, and how my parents’ journeys from the Ireland of the 1950s and 1960s had paved the way. I am grateful to them.

Anyway, I’m back to the blogging and eager to get started again!

I’m sorry to be missing all the excitement of this year in Ireland, what with the presidential election and all, but I’ll be back before long. In the meantime, my academic programme is a really wonderful experience – I’m studying alongside 200 other students from all over the world (something like 70 countries – including students from India, China, Japan, Egypt, the UK, Ethiopia, Croatia, Norway, Canada, Ivory Coast, Israel, Palestine, Nigeria, and lots more). Among our ranks are former (and future) government ministers, social entrepreneurs, soldiers, diplomats, technology consultants, journalists, college professors and many more interesting people of all sorts.

I was surprised to find that I seem to be the only one of the 1,000 students in the entire Kennedy School who has arrived from Ireland – though I have found two other Irish graduate students here at Harvard, both in the Graduate School of Education, one a teacher freshly arrived from Meath, the other a long-time resident of San Francisco.

While I’m here I’m studying things like economics, leadership, negotiations, advocacy, and policy change. So far, it feels like a wonderful gift, and I feel really lucky to be part of this class.

I’m still following all the events in Ireland, though I’ve been too busy to post of late. As I settle in I’ll be able to post a bit, although I’ll likely be quieter than usual on here until I graduate in May.

It is time to think and act anew. Irish officials must implement solutions quickly, before it’s too late, redouble efforts at creating wealth in emerging companies and harness the untapped resources of the Irish diaspora.

There is much talk of this vast diaspora, but its resources are not being utilised. Until the Irish leadership sees that taoiseachs delivering platitudes and bowls of shamrocks will not substitute for meaningful engagement, it never will be utilised.

His first two suggestions are focused on economic development:

Merge IDA, Enterprise Ireland and other agencies involved in economic development into one agency, name a leader, maybe an American chief executive like Craig Barrett, and support innovation, jobs and company formation. Then measure performance, not press releases;

Put whatever resources you can muster into worldwide venture capital funds that have a link beyond the monetary to Ireland, a real eco-system, and make the creation of companies, not reports, their core product;

The most interesting of the suggestions is the last:

Instead of abolishing the Seanad, select members who serve at no salary but chosen only from the Irish diaspora. From Silicon Valley select the likes of Craig Barrett, John Hartnett, founder of the ITLG and the Wilde Angel Fund, Conrad Burke of Innovalight and John O Ryan, the inventor behind the dynamic Rovi Corporate.

Add in Maria Shriver, Gabriel Byrne, Chuck Feeney, Niall O’Dowd and Declan Kelly too. And then from across the US, Australia, Canada and globally pick more such people and use them. Don’t lose them in a jumble of compliments and forums. As I once noted, I often found more wisdom in a conversation over a pint in McDaid’s or an hour at San Jose’s Irish Innovation Center than a day of speeches at Farmleigh. Implement, implement, implement as if your future depended on it – for it surely do.

I appreciate the spirit behind this suggestion: there are many in the diaspora who are willing and able to take a philanthropic approach to Ireland, and who would surely do us much good. I also appreciate the desire for greater engagement that is driving this idea, the generosity and good will among the diaspora that it highlights, and the innovative approach that is so sorely needed in rethinking the relationship between Ireland and the Irish abroad.

But I think it’s a highly problematic idea, for the following reasons:

1. Appointing, rather than electing, more representatives to the Seanad would reinforce the undemocratic nature of that body.
2. Asking people to serve in an unpaid capacity will ensure that only those of significant means will be able to do so. Not every talented person is wealthy enough to do substantial amounts of unpaid work.
3. These kinds of appointments would reinforce one of the most fundamental distortions in Irish society: the distinction between the insiders and the outsiders. One of the keys to the way the potential for success is often unleashed in the Irish abroad is that when Irish people leave, they often find themselves less bound by the restrictions of class and connection. Recent efforts to implement top-down networks and give government greater access to the most successful of the Irish abroad are aimed at establishing a hierarchy among the Irish abroad that the establishment here understand and are more comfortable with. This is not a step forward.

All the same, we’re blessed here in Ireland, in having a large international base of people around the globe who are interested in assisting us. We haven’t got the relationship right yet, but the more ideas we can throw around the better. I believe that we should favour those ideas that move us toward greater equality and more democratic representation of all of our citizens.

“I definitely and absolutely believe that Irish people living outside of the country should be able to decide who the next President of the country is. The old saying of ‘no representation without taxation’ may apply to a general election but there is no real basis for it in terms of electing a President in this instance.�?

He added:

“The Presidency is removed from Government, the executive and the area of taxation so giving Irish people abroad a voice would be a great thing, the right thing. It would keep us all organically connected and I feel very strongly that the vote should be extended to all Irish people everywhere whether they’re in Ireland or not.�?

Senator Norris has spoken in the Seanad in favour of emigrant voting rights in the past. His emphasis on the issue of taxation is puzzling, however, given that

• no other developed nation besides the US taxes its expats on money earned abroad (The US required the payment of taxation on foreign-earned income long before it granted voting rights to expats – and voting is not conditional on the payment of taxes),
• the payment of taxation is not required for voting rights for Irish residents,
• some emigrants do pay taxes, and
• the requirement of the payment of taxes in exchange for a vote is a profoundly undemocratic principle that calls for a return to the time when only men of property could vote.

There is some irony in the fact that Senator Norris was visiting the US in part to fundraise for his campaign: it’s another indicator of the way Ireland and various segments of Irish society regularly seek economic aid from the diaspora. It might not be taxation, but it’s invaluable.

If Irish emigrants were given the vote in presidential elections, it would surely benefit the effervescent, high-profile Senator Norris. It’s just a shame to see even a long-time supporter of emigrant voting rights can be influenced by a perspective that would link taxation and voting in a way that  appears to hold no weight anywhere else in the developed world.

On Wednesday, Sinn Fein TD Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin South Central) asked the following question:

The Taoiseach made a pre-election promise on political reform to give voting rights to the diaspora for the presidential election. Will the Government consider fast tracking legislation to afford a right to Irish citizens living in Ireland, but outside the 26 Counties, to participate in the election of the first citizen?

The response from Taoiseach Enda Kenny? Eight disappointing words:

“There is no legislation promised in this area.�?

This despite the fact that in the 2011 general election, Fine Gael included this commitment in their manifesto:

Fine Gael will reduce the voting age to 17 and give eligible citizens the right to vote at Irish embassies in the Presidential election. If this experiment is deemed a success Fine Gael will consider extending this practice to general elections.

This commitment, while vague in its lack of specification as to who the “eligible citizens�? were, was a clear signal of intent to allow voting rights for citizens abroad. Comments from politicians such as Simon Coveney seemed at the time to indicate that Fine Gael actually meant it.

The formulation of this commitment in the programme for government, however, was disappointing. In the programme, the government bounced the issue of embassy voting to the proposed Constitutional Convention, saying

We will refer to the Constitutional Convention the issue of reducing the Voting Age to 17 and giving citizens the right to vote at Irish embassies in the presidential election.

This despite the fact that there is currently no constitutional prohibition on voting rights for the Irish abroad.

Meanwhile, Ireland remains the only country in the EU with no option for emigrant voting, and the number of countries allowing their emigrants to vote continues to grow. Every week, it seems, brings news of another country committed to facilitating their expats to vote, with Haiti and Nigeria being among the latest to announce upcoming implementations of diaspora voting.

From the Irish Independent comes this one:

The number of calls to 11850 directory enquiries seeking contacts for sales training is up 114 per cent in the year, adding evidence to our other entrepreneurship indicator that the spirit of enterprise is alive and well in Ireland! However, emigration is very much a growing characteristic of the nation, with relocation queries bumping up 140 per cent.

Colm Harmon, Professor of Economics at Australian National University and also at University College Dublin, notes the scale of the accelerating Irish migration to Australia:

The Irish are now the third largest migrant group in absolute terms for employer sponsored (457) visas, and proportional to our population by a large way the biggest migrant group in this category.

Ireland is sending about one-third the total numbers the UK is sending – with 20 times the population! More Irish are arriving on 457s then the total from the entire rest of the European continent.

The increase in this number year on year is about one-third more than the increase of UK or other Europeans, so the share is growing.

Professor Harmon asserts – correctly, I believe – that the future for most of these emigrants will be in their adopted country, due to the Ireland’s bleak economic prospects. He then makes two assertions I’d disagree with:

1. That these emigrants “won’t have a role” in Ireland’s economic recovery.
2. That “this may be the first Irish migrant cohort to Australia who won’t be looking over their shoulders at the old country, won’t have the sense of attachment that previous generations held.”

On the first point, I suspect we’ll be asking our emigrants for much in the future. One could say, for example, that even by taking themselves out of the dole queues that these young people have already started doing their bit for Ireland’s economic recovery. In the future, they’ll be contributing through a variety of means, as emigrants always have. I’ve heard of emigrants sending money home to support younger brothers and sisters, to name just the most direct (and traditional) channel of economic support. But in the future there will also be business networking, diaspora-related FDI, visits home, green-flag-flying, and those who will return home to transform “brain drain” into “brain circulation”.

On the second point, I’m not sure how this generation of Facebookers, Tweeters and Skypers will be any less attached to Ireland than the generations whose main contact with Ireland was a dwindling exchange of letters sent over on a slow boat.

Where I do agree wholeheartedly, however, is with Professor Harmon’s suggestion that this is an important cohort to study. He says:

If I can make one appeal, I would urge the very many successful Irish-Australians – or even Irish in Australia – to consider endowing the costs of capturing the experiences of this group through research and understanding the life trajectory of this group compared to those that came before them, and those that remained in Ireland.

I would love to see such a study, but I’d love to make it global. How does the experience of being Irish in Galway differ from that of being Irish in Beijing or Toronto or Dubai? Imagine being able to explore similarities and differences in issues of mental and physical health, longevity, happiness, family life, engagement with Ireland – you name it.

See Professor Harmon’s entire article at theconversation.edu.au.