I am disappointed by the latest missed opportunity to call the necessary referendum on allowing all Irish citizens to vote for the next president of the ‘Global Irish Nation’.
On a visit to London before Christmas, I asked the then diaspora minister Colm Brophy about the Government’s conspicuous reluctance to convene the referendum.
He replied: “We are dealing with that separately to engage more with the Global Irish.”
I presumed he meant the pending Global Irish Civic Forum, convened for Dublin Castle on April 20-21.
I do hope that very soon after that a campaign strategy is started and a date for the referendum announced.
The first Irish Constitutional Convention was held 10 years ago in 2013 and discussed several issues.
As a result, same-sex marriage and abortion rights were put to referendums.
At that 2013 Constitutional Convention, Irish people at home and abroad also engaged, positively, with the issue of extending the right to vote in future presidential elections to all Irish citizens.
Some 79% of the convention’s delegates supported the principle.
Yet here we are, 10 years later, and my worry is — facing a presidential election next year (and a general election in 2025) — that short-term party political considerations will once again kick the matter into the long grass.
This could rumble on and on into further delay and indecision.
The next president of Ireland may potentially serve for 14 years which, in practical terms, means I will forever be denied my right to vote for the next president of the Global Irish Nation.
The Good Friday Agreement celebrates and upholds the right of people in Northern Ireland to be Irish or British or both.
Is the Irish Government worried (should the referendum result be ‘yes’) about how Northern Ireland’s Irish citizens would vote in a presidential election?
Obviously, the existing electorate of the Republic — 26 of 32 counties — is crucial in deciding whether or not the Global Irish can never be taken for granted.
But all these delays and hesitation is delaying our campaign time.
To be able to vote in next year’s presidential election means a referendum would need to be called this year.
All candidates in that election will have to be nominated by either: At least 20 members of the Oireachtas; or at least four local authorities within the Republic.
A candidate meeting that threshold will already have a mandate of sorts from many people in Ireland.
Enda Kenny, when taoiseach, promised the referendum in Philadelphia in 2017; it is agreed in legislation by the Oireachtas.
As an Irish person in Britain since 1980, I have campaigned for this for a long time.
In my experience, there is something about the emigrant experience, whether chosen or imposed by economic necessity, which focuses one’s identity very clearly and quickly.
I have always taken my Irishness as a given despite living here in Britain — my sense of being Irish has always been to the fore.
The president of Ireland is a unifying head of the Irish nation at home and abroad and represents Ireland internationally.
Since the election of Mary Robinson, the presidency has been defined as global and maintains positive cultural and business links with the diaspora — hence the pertinence of allowing Irish citizens who live outside Ireland a choice in electing the president.
Ireland will gain much by fully cherishing its “exiled children” (as per the 1916 Proclamation).
We are a powerful resource for good, by our own example we encourage Irish people (and others) to connect with Ireland.
A large, English-speaking, successful, diaspora invested in Irish affairs is an asset of which many other small nations could only dream.
That strong bond can only be enhanced by allowing Irish people abroad to vote for the head of State, a win-win situation.
For seven years prior to emigrating, I had full voting rights for my nation’s president. I want my vote back. This is personal for me.
I believe in equality of citizenship; one is either an Irish citizen or not.
Gerry Molumby
Derbyshire
UK
Tourist visas for Colombian people
In an interview with the then-tánaiste Leo Varadkar in Bogotá last St Patrick’s Day, the now Taoiseach told me that the main reason why Ireland required Colombians to obtain a visa to simply visit the country as tourists was the Common Travel Area with the UK.
At the time, the UK had the same visa requirement. However, our neighbours scrapped it last November.
This means Ireland is now the only country in Europe where Colombians need a visa to enter for tourism purposes.
The Department of Justice is not for turning, though. It seems to think — wrongly, I believe — that Ireland would become flooded with Colombians if this visa requirement was removed. In an email reply to my contention (one in which Colombia was spelt incorrectly, with a ‘u’), a department official wrote: “I fully appreciate your wish to move to a visa-free arrangement however, we are currently facing an exceptional migration situation, including the humanitarian situation arising from the war in Ukraine and the unprecedented numbers seeking international protection in the State.”
Do note, Irish passport holders can land in Colombia and get the standard 90-day tourist pass with hardly a question asked.
We Irish do like to promote ourselves as a freedom-loving, open, and welcoming people. Alas, from a Colombian perspective, Ireland is the least-welcoming country in Europe.
Even those bumbling Brexiteers are viewed in a more favourable light.
Come on official Ireland, you can do better.
Brendan Corrigan
Bogotá
Colombia
Trickle-down policy and child poverty
The economic policies of “trickle-down economics” espoused by neo-liberals like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher was a chancer’s trope. The idea should never have been allowed to see the light of day. There was no evidence, no proof, and nothing to substantiate it.
However, numerous respectable Western democracies were deceived into trying it.
One of the most disgraceful consequences is child poverty. I do not blame politicians for this. Every generation of professional politicians is susceptible to the influence of hyper-confident self-appointed charlatan priests.
The largest group of people living in poverty today in this country is children; they cannot vote, they must eat what they are given, and they must go where they are told. Their horizons are defined and given to them by others.
They are the only group in society that is utterly powerless. They are also the group most reliant upon the wisdom and conscience of others. It is the same in every country that flirted with trickle-down economics.
To make matters worse, children receive images of prosperity and excess from every angle nowadays in a way that previous generations never did.
Humiliation and belittlement pours into their eyes and minds day and night in our modern Western culture when they experience poverty.
This is not a uniquely Irish problem. So let’s have some pride and find a uniquely Irish solution. For a start, give Barnardos more money. They are experts in this field — they must look at our Vat rate debates for the hospitality sector in dumbfounded bafflement. Don’t get me wrong, hotels and restaurants are vitally-important businesses, employing people and generating economic activity. But my goodness, imagine what Barnardos could do with a fraction of that money for children living in poverty.
Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí (praise the young and they will flourish). The future does not begin tomorrow. It begins today.
Michael Deasy
Bandon,
Co Cork
Landlords taking unfair advantage
I read with some dismay that a landlord is asking €2,250 a month for a two-bedroom apartment in Oliver Plunkett St, Cork. In my opinion this is both an excessive rent and is a typical example of a landlord taking unfair advantage of young people who are trying to live and work in our city.
For a double accommodation unit, which carries a rent in excess of €1,300 per month, anything in excess of that should attract an income tax of 70%. Similarly with a one-bed unit carrying a rent over €800 per month.
Furthermore, REITS and vulture funds should have the same income tax regime as that levied on private landlords.
Landlords of properties on our streets which are unoccupied on the upper floors should be given conversion incentives, and in the absence of landlord co-operation, the local council should be empowered to take possession of unoccupied space, not by compulsory purchase order but following the Dutch cities model.
Contrary to Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s opinion, the stay on eviction notices should be extended until our Government is in a position to provide social/ affordable houses for our citizens. Landlords only exit the property market when there is a significant uplift in attainable house prices, provided they have another form of investment for that exit money.
Daniel Teegan
Monkstown
Co Cork
