Sir, - I agree entirely with Jaimie Harris that, ideally, people should vote in their country of residence and not elsewhere. I voted in the 1992 general election in Scotland and would not have claimed the right to vote additionally in elections at home in Ireland. In fairness to the much maligned Brits, we should admit that this measure constitutes both preferential treatment of Irish citizens and an example to all other EU member states!
Exercising my freedom of movement a little further, I soon left this perfect state of affairs far behind and found that in Germany and Austria I am not allowed to vote in national elections. Most EU countries seem to assume that foreigners will be able to vote at home and, logically enough, refuse to give them a second vote. I think this is the wrong way round, but it doesn't seem likely that it is about to change.
Ireland's failure to harmonise on this point leaves some tens of thousands of Irish citizens within the EU without the right to vote in the national elections of any member state. This also abolishes our democratic input (such as it is) into the most powerful institutions within the EU, the Commission and the Council of Ministers. And in the EU context, anyone worried about taxation and representation might reflect that some of my tax must have arrived in Ireland by now. And I can't be blamed for electing the Government who gave it to the beef barons! - Yours, etc,
Karl-Schoenherrgasse 7,
A-8042 Graz, Austria.