Extending voting rights brings own problems

Reg Empey has rightly pointed out that extending the right to Irish citizens that are not resident in the Republic is “dangerous stuff” and would lead to a vote in Northern Ireland for Dáil Éireann in Dublin.

It beggars belief that Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin was allowed to run as an Irish presidential candidate and at the same time could not cast a vote in the election that he was a candidate in.

All electoral systems say — if you cannot vote, you cannot run. This has spurred on the current situation that wants to give Northern politicians, especially Irish, a bigger vote than they would get. Article 3 of the Irish Constitution is not unlike the old Article 3 before 1998 in wanting a unitary state.