Let them vote - Involve emigrants in society

IT is chastening for a society of less than 5m citizens to realise that there are 200,000 fewer people in their twenties living in Ireland now than there were six years ago.

Even in a country with a long and difficult relationship with emigration, this CSO data is challenging and heartbreaking. It describes economic failure and a determination among young people to make a life for themselves even if it means moving away from family and friends. The figures describe a social failure. Some of those 200,000 people, loved and educated here, had jobs but moved away to earn more and live a more attractive lifestyle than the one immediately available in this country.

One of the most striking things about the marriage equality referendum was how many emigrants cared enough for this country to come home to vote in a society-changing poll. That was a cry for recognition and suggests we need to expedite plans to give the vote to emigrants. They wish to participate and we would be foolish to alienate them further or needlessly reject their input. Give them the vote now.

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