Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)

I think it is the first time I have addressed the Minister of State in the Chamber. I congratulate him on his appointment and wish him the best of luck with it. The Labour Party has long supported the extension of the voting franchise. We feel it goes to the heart of our democracy. I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion, which we will support. Many proposals on voting rights, especially for our diaspora, have come before this House. That is particularly linked to a history of emigration. The right to vote in elections to Dáil Éireann is outlined in Article 16 of the Constitution and is open to all citizens over 18 and other persons as determined by law. They must also be ordinarily resident in Ireland and registered to vote. The right to vote in presidential elections is determined by Article 12 of the Constitution and delimited to citizens eligible to vote in Dáil elections. It is our view that it should be legally possible to extend the franchise to recent emigrants without a referendum. It should also be extended to EU citizens living here. These are two issues I will return to.

The broader issue, as outlined in this motion, arises for citizens living abroad who have never lived here, particularly those living in Northern Ireland. When the Labour Party was in government, it established the convention on the Constitution in 2012. One of the key issues it addressed was voting rights for citizens resident outside of the State. Many of the reports of the convention were acted on but this is a key outstanding issue. The fifth report of the constitutional convention, published in November 2013, recommended that citizens resident outside the State have the right to vote in presidential elections. During the Second Stage debate on a Sinn Féin Bill proposing a constitutional amendment on this issue over a decade ago, in March 2015, my colleague, Deputy Nash, responded for the Government of the time. The Bill was not opposed then either. It was noted during a debate, as it has been today, that a large number of practical and policy issues need to be addressed before the extension of the franchise and the holding of any referendum. It is incredible that ten years on, nothing has been done to advance this, despite a commitment to act.

The debate at that time did not occur in a vacuum. There was a renewed focus on emigration. Irish young people were once again having to leave their homes in the country to find jobs and advance their careers, due to an economic crash caused by Fianna Fáil. There was also renewed focus on our diaspora as we sought to boost our economic recovery by tapping into our global network to aid the creation of new jobs and attract new investment.

The Fine Gael minority Government, supported by Fianna Fáil from 2016 to 2020, committed to holding a referendum on extending the franchise in presidential elections to citizens living abroad. Enda Kenny confirmed his intention to hold that referendum during his St. Patrick's Day trip in 2017. The then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced in 2019 the decision to postpone the holding of the referendum at the upcoming local and European elections until later that year. Nothing more ever came of it.

Labour supports the holding of a referendum on this matter but we would warn that extensive and detailed planning work is required before it could happen, if any lessons are to be learned from our recent votes. In particular, arrangements for the registration of new voters in the North and for voting by those citizens would have to be workable and robust. Other considerations arising include the method of voting, cost and resource needs and the security of the ballot. The standard practice in other countries of using postal voting, in-person registration or voting in embassies would not necessarily be practical at all of the North. In-person voting would likely need to be facilitated there.

Other questions that will need to be addressed include whether the right should be restricted to those born on the island of Ireland, all those with citizenship or those with a passport. We would support citizenship as a condition for eligibility. There is, however, a real risk referendum could be defeated by fearmongering or the inverse of the American slogan of "No taxation without representation", particularly if there was a failure to prepare. Such an outcome would send a negative message about the future of island and about efforts to achieve a united Ireland. There is also the possibility that giving our diaspora a vote only in the presidential election could be seen as tokenistic. However, in our view it would be a hugely symbolic measure and another step towards unity.

The convention debate and the report that followed addressed many of these legal and practical issues, but that was nearly 12 years ago. A welcome first step would be the establishment of a special Oireachtas committee to tease out these issues and make substantive policy recommendations. There is cross-party consensus on the principle of extending the franchise for presidential elections but, as we saw with the repeal referendum, holding committee hearings in advance makes a substantial impact on informing the public debate.

I listened to the Minister of State's remarks earlier and he asked how do we win this debate? Rushing a constitutional amendment, as happened last year - there were substantial hearings on the wording but without heed to the considered recommendations of the Oireachtas committees concerned - was certainly one reason we lost that. The follow on impact on public policy from a referendum loss in this regard would be a recipe for disaster. As I said, we call for that special Oireachtas committee which would allow for the nuts and bolts of how voting would work to be outlined and considered and provide a roadmap for implementation. As I said at the start of my contribution, whatever one's view on a referendum, we already have scope within the Constitution to look at extending the franchise.

Ireland has long ignored the rights of our citizens who have emigrated to participate in our elections and severely restricted the ability of people to use postal votes. These are key issues that must and should be resolved in advance of any referendum. Many of these will be researched by the recently established Electoral Commission and the Labour Party made substantial proposals on these issues when the legislation for that was passed by the Oireachtas. It is welcome that the research programme of the Electoral Commission will look at postal voting this year and residency voting next year. This work would dovetail well with that of a special committee established to look at extending the franchise for presidential elections.

A key first step is to clean up the electoral register as it stands and so improve the security of our votes. There are 11 local authorities with more people registered to vote than the eligible population for their area. The Electoral Commission has made substantial recommendations to address this but it will be 2026 before we see real progress and it must be completed before the 2029 local and European elections.

If the Minister wants to take real tangible action in the meantime, I urge him to start with supporting those living outside the State for short periods to vote in our elections. I am sure we all encountered people in the recent general election, and local elections, who were unable to vote because they were outside the country. The home to vote movement during the repeal and marriage equality referendums should have inspired us, long ago, to change our outdated laws.

Of 27 EU states, Ireland is one of three that does not extend suffrage to recent emigrants beyond 18 months; those three being Ireland, Malta and Cyprus. Currently, Irish citizens can vote in Irish elections for up to 18 months after leaving Ireland, if they intend to return in the same period. It had been previously proposed by the then Minister of State with responsibility for the diaspora, Jimmy Deenihan, to extend this period to three years. Notably, a Private Members' Bill from the Labour Party, proposed by Deputy Gerry O'Sullivan in 1991, proposed that emigrants from Ireland should have the right to vote for up to 15 years after becoming non-resident. It was defeated at the time by just four votes. It was introduced as part of the campaign at that time to extend the franchise to emigrants.

Providing a vote for recent emigrants would not be technically difficult. Their vote would be located in the constituency where they were resident and on the register before they left. Their vote would issue by postal ballot. It would be a trial run for extending the presidential franchise to all citizens and ensure we get our postal voting system right. Of course, we could also look at technology if we wanted to adapt to the 21st century, although our experiment with electronic voting has made that a taboo subject since.

The commission has also made recommendations on waiving the charges imposed on persons applying for the postal vote because of illness, disability or other medical certification. It should be much easier to get a postal vote. Compared to many other countries, Ireland makes it very hard to vote. You must be on the register and show up on the day between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Even the United States has early voting. This is something we would like to see facilitated.

The Labour Party has also long supported the lowering of the voting age to 16. This is a measure that could be implemented before the 2029 local and European elections. We also believe that the Electoral Commission should research the extension of voting rights for Dáil elections to all long-term residents living in Ireland for more than five years. British citizens can vote in our Dáil elections but EU citizens who have been living here for decades are barred from doing so unless they take up citizenship. While most EU countries allow their citizens living abroad to vote in their elections, there is a strong case for seeking agreement on a European level for complimentary voting rights for Irish citizens living in other EU countries and vice versa. That would allow those who live and work in another EU country to take part in the democratic decisions that most influence their lives.

In conclusion, there is substantial work under way by the Electoral Commission on various reforms and research on potential changes, but unless there is political will to change the way we hold our elections from the Government, nothing will change. We believe a special committee should be established to report on how the presidential franchise would be extended to all citizens. We want it to make recommendations on the nuts and bolts of that process and to then hold a referendum to change our Constitution, as the constitutional convention decided conclusively to do 12 years ago.

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