Diaspora voting rights
Madam Editor,
The minister of state for the Diaspora and International Development Mr Ciaran Cannon in his piece (Irish Independent July 13) wrote that there was great value to be had from harnessing the collective creative talent of our world-wide diaspora. He further stated that during ‘’The Gathering’’ in 2013 we got a glimpse of our collective power, and that he had a great sense of being part of a unique global community.
Ireland engaged with its emigrants for a whole year, and then reverted back to the old ways of - out of sight - out of mind. The long promised voting rights for our almost 80 million people worldwide, has not yet seen the light of day, as it is conveniently kicked to touch.
A senior Irish government politician attending an overseas emigrant function in the UK in recent months, was confidently explaining to his fellow countrymen and women of how good things were back in the old sod in 2017.
When asked the question, ‘’well, why are we all back here then?’’. He had no answer.
There has not been a cohesive diaspora policy produced by successive governments over many years, that would help to attract home again, some of the many thousands of our brightest and best young people, who left our shores in droves during the recent recession, in order to achieve a decent standard of living.
If the Minister ever had the unique experience of attending the St. Patricks day parades in either Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago or Toronto, he might arrive at a greater understanding of the enormity of our countries loss. These are huge ‘Gatherings’ that are organised on an annual basis, and offer a unique opportunity to sell and promote progressive policies that would help to attract home again, many of our emigrants to the land of their birth.
Rather than paying them lip-service, let us hope that these progressive policies will be put in place by our Irish governments in the months and years ahead, in what would almost certainly be a win-win situation for everybody concerned. Yours Sincerely, Tom Towey, Cloonacool, Co. Sligo.