Civic forum to be held on extending presidential vote to Irish citizens overseas

The Government will hold a civic forum next year to engage with Irish citizens abroad on plans to hold a referendum to allow them vote in presidential elections.

Minister of State for the Diaspora Colm Brophy, a supporter of giving Irish citizens living overseas, the right to vote in presidential elections, said the Government might be able to hold the referendum in 2024 in time to give citizens abroad the opportunity to vote in the next presidential election, in 2025.

He said past referendums have shown that “if you go off on it without sufficient information being made available, without a full discussion, without an engagement”, there was a “higher percentage chance that the referendum will fail”.

He expressed concern about the diaspora vote referendum becoming “a referendum about something that is not at all to do with the question that is being asked”.

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“As someone who wants to see the referendum pass, I am quite prepared to take a little longer to make sure we have that engagement, not just with the diaspora who are passionate about this but with people who are living in Ireland who will actually have a vote in what the referendum is and in making that change,” he said.

The chances of the measure passing would increase significantly if there was “a proper, full discussion and we bring people on board and explain exactly what we are doing,” said the Fine Gael junior minister. “We have to give ourselves time to do this; we cannot rush it.”

Mr Brophy said earlier this year that the vote would take place before 2024 but this has since been revised, with the Covid-19 pandemic leading to the Government’s timeline slipping. He declined to commit to a definitive date, saying it was a matter for Government and that engagement needed to take place first to inform people about the potential change.

“It is better to get this right for all future elections rather than to be so constrained that we get it wrong and don’t get the outcome we want,” he said.

Voting in elections and referendums is open to all citizens resident in the Republic who are over 18. Those who move abroad but plan to return within 18 months are also entitled to vote. Irish citizen groups abroad have long pushed for the extension of voting rights to the Irish passport holders in the diaspora.

[ Slim majority believe Irish abroad should vote in presidential elections ]

The last government agreed in February 2019 to hold a referendum and in the autumn of the same year it published the 39th Amendment of the Constitution Bill (Presidential Elections) to amend the Constitution to extend voting rights in presidential elections to Irish citizens who reside overseas in the event that a referendum is passed.

Mr Brophy dismissed the suggestion that Irish citizens overseas might “swamp” a presidential ballot given that there are millions of Irish citizens living outside the State.

“I don’t think that they will all, even if they all have the vote in the morning, act in some singular way,” he said. Extending the vote would create a “much more inclusionary opportunity” for the presidency, particularly given that recent Irish presidents have strongly engaged with the diaspora, he said.