EU Affairs Committee calls for voting rights of Irish abroad

13 November 2014

In Committee says that an Electoral Commission should be established to assist in the design of a system that would be workable in an Irish context.
In its , the cross-party Committee agreed that Irish emigrants should continue to have a stake in the future of their home country.

The body of work was sparked by European Commission criticism of Ireland for not providing voting rights in national elections for Irish citizens living in other Member States.

As well as engaging with the European Commission, the Committee heard from a number of Dublin-based Ambassadors of other Member States and Irish political parties on the issue.  The Committee also heard from Dr Adrian Kavanagh, a leading expert in political geography from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth; and Jennie McShannon, CEO of ‘Irish in Britain’.

Committee Chairman Dominic Hannigan says: “As a Committee, we agree with the rationale for the guidance issued by the European Commission in January this year. Mobility across the European Union, compared for instance with the United States, is relatively low with just three percent of EU citizens living in a different EU Member State from their home country. The electoral systems in Ireland therefore need to be closely examined, so not to impede on the free movement of people within the European Union.

“That is why the Committee is calling on the Government to accept the principle that voting rights should be extended to Irish citizens abroad. Evidence from other countries suggests that Ireland needs to act carefully should it decide to extend voting rights in a meaningful manner. The Committee does not want a situation where we extend the right to vote to Irish emigrants abroad only to be followed by a miniscule turnout. So, if and when voting rights are extended to the Irish diaspora, the Committee suggests that an Electoral Commission would need to be established to consider the infrastructure required.

“Of course, many recent Irish emigrants reside in non-EU countries, such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand.  So we are also saying very clearly that the issue of voting rights for Irish citizens resident in other EU countries cannot be separated from the wider issue of voting rights for Irish citizens resident abroad more generally. We believe that by taking action to address the issue of voting rights for Irish citizens resident abroad in a global sense, the EU dimension can also be addressed.”

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Paul Hand,
Communications Unit,
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Committee Membership
Deputies: Eric Byrne, Seán Crowe, Timmy Dooley, Bernard J. Durkan, John Halligan, Dominic Hannigan (Chair), Seán Kyne, and Joe O’Reilly
Senators: Colm Burke, Aideen Hayden, Terry Leyden, Catherine Noone and Kathryn Reilly