I listened with interest to the Taoiseach's comments during his visit to the United States last week. I welcome his remarks in respect of the plight of the undocumented Irish citizens in the US. I also noted in Philadelphia the Taoiseach announced the Government would hold a long-overdue referendum in respect of voting rights in presidential elections. As the Taoiseach is aware, we have been pressing him and his colleagues for some time to allow citizens in the North and in the diaspora to have a vote in presidential elections. The Taoiseach is also aware the Constitutional Convention proposed in September 2013, quite some time ago, that such a referendum should be held. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs also made such a recommendation. Having made the announcement in Philadelphia that the referendum would be brought forward, could the Taoiseach tell us today when the legislation to allow for the referendum will come before the Dáil?

The first step is that the options paper to which I referred in Philadelphia will be published this week. That sets out the range and the categories of people, North and South and beyond, who will be considered eligible to vote in the presidential election in 2025. I am not in a position to give the Deputy a date for the production of the legislation but the options paper that will determine the eventual outcome of the legislation will be published this week. It will contain the range of issues on which we need to reflect in order to bring this measure to reality and finality. It is not for the next presidential election, it is for the one after that. The process will involve setting up a new electoral register and various categories of eligibility to vote.