Extending the vote to Irish citizens in the North for the 2018 presidential election could be the catalyst for people to cast their ballot for a united Ireland, the Seanad has heard.

Independent Senator Billy Lawless said 25 of the 28 EU member states provide a vote to citizens abroad and 125 countries worldwide do so.

Mr Lawless who was nominated to the Seanad by Taoiseach Enda Kenny to represent the diaspora, suggested that the State start on its commitment to extend the vote through the 2018 presidential election.

“If we allow people in both the North and the South to vote in that election it might be the catalyst for them to vote for a united Ireland,” he said. “Ireland will only benefit from engaging her dynamic emigrants in the democratic process.”

The Taoiseach’s nominee said that “from Argentina to Australia and from Dubai to Italy, Irish citizens are moving, innovating and working in every conceivable industry”.

But he warned that in an era of global citizenship “Ireland has to choose between adapting to an ever-changing definition of nationhood and of Irish citizenship by embracing her diaspora or looking away and focusing inward”.

Mr Lawless described his nomination as “truly an historic moment for the Seanad and the people of Ireland, regardless of where in the world they live. I stand here as the first Irish citizen emigrant to be appointed to this Chamber”.

He said he was “here to give official voice to the millions of Irish men and women who have left these shores but have not forgotten the land of their birth or lost their innate sense of Irish identity”.

Mr Lawless, who left Ireland in 1998 to settle in Chicago in the US, said more than 40 million Americans claimed Irish descent and 70 million worldwide. He said emigration continued but it was diminishing rapidly and the Irish continued to make their mark on the world.