Government to kickstart process to stage referendum on voting rights for the diaspora

 President Michael D Higgins. The Programme for Government committed to hold a referendum on extending the franchise at presidential elections to Irish citizens living outside the State.

Plans to kick-start a discussion on holding a referendum on diaspora voting rights for future Presidential elections is to be announced by Government today.

Fine Gael Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora, Colm Brophy will virtually meet with Irish diaspora to inform them of a civic forum which he said will take place next Spring in Dublin.

The referendum itself is likely not to take place until 2024 which could give voting rights to Irish citizens living abroad.

The forum will cover a range of issues that the diaspora is affected by and will give people an opportunity to come together and examine key matters such as their voting rights.

The Programme for Government by the three Coalition parties committed to hold a referendum on extending the franchise at presidential elections to Irish citizens living outside the State.

Mr Brophy will inform leaders of Irish diaspora organisations across the globe today on the State’s plans for a potential referendum.

'Clear message'

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, he said it’s imperative there is sufficient preparation prior to a referendum hence the importance of a civic forum which can tease out how the Government can proceed.

He said: “Referenda in this country in the past, regardless of what topic they were on, can be lost because of a lack of information or a clear message of what people are being asked to endorse.

“And I think one of the most important parts the civic forum will be the start of this and will feed into that and out of that. When the civic forum is finished, there’ll be the referendum itself where there’ll be the opportunity to clearly campaign and explain to people this is what we’d like to see.

“One of those main key issues obviously is the voting rights within the next Presidential election cycle so looking at whether and how we should shape that and obviously the civic forum will have a big input from the diaspora in terms of how we look at that and how we proceed.”

Mr Brophy said there is a widespread belief and understanding from the Irish diaspora of the benefits of having a say for Irish citizens, no matter where they are in the world, in a presidential election.

He said he believes giving all Irish citizens, including those overseas, a chance to vote is a win-win.

He added: “If you think about the presidency and recent presidents and the way in which they have conducted the office, they have been very strong and positive on being a voice for Irish people no matter where they are in the world and not just being the president for the people on the island of Ireland but also president for all Irish people no matter where they are in the world.”

Speaking recently to Newstalk, VotingRights.ie Vice Chair Emma DeSouza said the choice to vote would be very welcome to people in the North.