Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

The motion is rooted in three simple, democratic principles, namely, that every Irish citizen should have the right to vote for the President, that the Office of the President should be transparent and accountable and the process for standing for election should be fair and open to all citizens, not just the politically connected, and that voting rights for Irish citizens should be extended to the North of Ireland. Close to 2 million people live in the North of Ireland. Thousands of them are proud Irish citizens by birth, by heritage and by right under the Good Friday Agreement. They carry Irish passports, pay Irish taxes and send their children to Irish universities. They are part of the nation in every possible way. However, when it comes to electing the President of Ireland they are excluded from that right.

The President should represent the Irish nation as a whole. Our Constitution speaks of the nation and of the people. The Good Friday Agreement and the constitutional changes that followed it made this all the more clear. That agreement recognises the birthright of the people in the North of Ireland to identify themselves and to be accepted as Irish or British or both. It affirms their right to Irish citizenship, a right recognised in both Irish and international law. That means that every person born on this island, North or South, is part of the Irish nation if he or she so chooses. Yet, our electoral laws deny those living in the North of Ireland the right to vote. This goes directly against the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement and the Constitution.

You cannot recognise a person as Irish in law but deny them the most basic democratic right of citizenship, namely the right to vote for their President. In 2013, the constitutional convention, a citizens' assembly made up of ordinary people and elected representatives, examined this very issue. After detailed discussions and public consultation, it voted overwhelmingly to extend presidential voting rights to Irish citizens living in the North of Ireland. That convention was made up of 66 randomly chosen individuals and 33 politicians from across parties and from the North, and was chaired independently by Tom Arnold. It represented the Irish public in the most genuine sense. Its recommendation was clear and democratic, and, yet, more than a decade later, no action has followed. In 2019, the Government again promised a referendum on this issue and again it was quietly shelved. We hear daily about a shared island, but we cannot credibly talk about sharing if we deny the most basic democratic right. Successive Governments have refused to act in the way long promised in respect of this reform.

The office of President rightly commands deep respect. It symbolises service, dignity and unity but respect for institutions cannot mean a blank cheque. It must rest on trust, and trust comes through transparency. Right now, the financial operations of the Áras are not fully subject to independent audit or publication. The Comptroller and Auditor General does not have complete oversight of the President's spending and budget. Spending reports are not made public in the same way as those for the various State agencies. This lack of transparency serves no one, least of all the President. When every local authority, hospital, school and public body has to account for its expenditure, it is simply wrong that one of the most publicly funded institutions in the State is exempt. Families across Ireland are being asked to stretch every euro. Public trust in Government spending is already fragile. The best way to protect the dignity of the Presidency is not through secrecy but through openness. Aontú's proposal is straightforward, namely publish the annual financial accounts relating to the President's spending in full.

On the nomination process, in this election, people have felt starved of choice.

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