The presidential election in the autumn must be the last one that excludes citizens in the North and those living abroad from voting, the Dáil has heard.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said “the President is not just president for the 26 counties, but for the entire Irish nation, regardless of the separation imposed upon us by partition”.
It is an injustice and “a violation of democracy that Irish citizens in the six counties and those living abroad are denied the right to vote for their president”, she said.
Ms McDonald was speaking as she introduced a Sinn Féin motion to implement the recommendations in 2013 of the Convention on the Constitution to extend voting rights in presidential elections to all Irish citizens on the island of Ireland.
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The motion also calls on the Government to “progress proposals that would extend the right to vote in presidential election to the diaspora” as well.
The Sinn Féin leader said Armagh won the Sam Maguire cup last year but “you can be a champion of Old Ireland and yet be prevented from voting for the President of Ireland”.
Irish people living in the North can run in the presidential election and become President as Mary McAleese had done but “you’re barred from voting for yourself”.
Ms McDonald said the Northern Assembly passed a motion supporting extending the right to vote in the presidential election to all citizens resident on the island of Ireland.
“That was a powerful democratic message, one which reaffirms the principle of equality enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement,” she said.
Her party introduced legislation in 2014 to extend voting rights that passed second stage. A referendum had been set for May 2019, but it was postponed by the government and “nothing has happened” since.
The commitment “has even been dropped from the current programme for government. The Government’s inertia cannot be allowed to continue”.
Her party colleague Rose Conway-Walsh said “141 countries allow enable their diaspora to vote” and it is “absolutely mind-boggling” that Irish citizens in the North cannot vote.
Sinn Féin’s Seán Crowe said “Ireland does not end five miles from Dundalk or at the shores of Lough Foyle”. His party colleague Denise Mitchell said “the President is the representative of the Irish nation and that nation does not just stop at an imaginary line that was dreamt up by the British and imposed on us over 100 years ago”.
The Government did not oppose the motion but Minister of State for the Diaspora Neale Richmond said he had a “real fear” because extending the franchise requires a referendum and they should “not underestimate the challenge constitutional change brings”.
They had to win the debate and “to be quite frank, we have had two referendums in the past 12 to 14 months that most people in this chamber backed, and we got a fair kicking on them”.
Mr Richmond said “it is not simply about naming the date” for a referendum. “It is about formulating a campaign. It is about presenting a very clear question to the people that will show what happens if they vote for this. It will show how people will be facilitated to vote, how we will capture the citizens abroad.”
Labour TD Ciarán Ahern said 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.”
