Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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354. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he plans to grant voting rights to members of the Ukrainian community now residing in this country as a result of the invasion of their country by Russia in the forthcoming local elections. [32291/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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To vote in an election or referendum in Ireland a person must be both eligible to vote and registered to vote. The eligibility criteria for entry to the register of local government electors is provided under section 10 of the Electoral Act 1992 as amended by the Electoral Reform Act 2022. In this context, section 10 provides that "A person shall be entitled to be registered as a local government elector in a local electoral area if he has reached the age of eighteen years and he is ordinarily resident in that area."

The right to vote in local elections is set out in section 24 of the Local Government Act 2001 (as amended). Section 24(1) of the Act provides that every person whose name is on the register of local government electors prepared under Part II of the Electoral Act, 1992, for a local electoral area is entitled to vote at the poll at a local election in that area.

Ukrainian citizens resident in Ireland who might wish to vote in the next local elections may apply to the local authority in whose functional area they currently reside either by submitting an application online at www.checktheregister.ieor submitting a paper ERF1 form. Further information is available from each local authority or, alternatively, online at www.checktheregister.ie.