Just to clarify, I’m a first generation Irish passport holder who lives abroad. My passport is my citizenship status albeit without voting rights unlike most countries in the civilised world. India, Nigeria and Turkey have just drafted legislation to allow their citizens an absentee vote, why not Ireland?

Well Patrick I don’t know what your residency status is here and I’m not overly familiar with the law in that regard either. I suppose it would be the same as me having Anglo-Irish parents and a British passport with voting rights but no residency in the UK for any extended period of time. I might consider myself British/Irish but have no intention of ever living in the UK so why should I have a vote and tell people who are living there how they should run the country if it will only affect them and not me.

To put it another way, if we gave voting rights to the 70 million or so Irish abroad to vote in our elections how fair is that for those people to have power over the 4.5 million people actually living here? What does Niall in New York, Sean in Sydney or Liam in London know about local issues in Bandon, Kilrush, Saggart or Castlebar. How well do they know know the people running for election or the issues that they stand for? What constituency do you you put them into? Do you have a situation where you have the left leaning voters at home being out voted by the right leaning voters away who don’t have to deal with the consequences of the result.

In theory It would be a nice aspiration but I’m afraid in practice it is unworkable.

Sorry Brian, to clarify further, I was born and raised in Ireland. I am referring to those of us who take an active interest in the political and social future of our birthplace. Not the 70 million? or so who claim some Irish ancestry. Yes I agree that would be ludicrous and insulting to the Irish populace to even consider.
Ireland is one of the few countries on the planet that does not allow it’s citizens abroad to vote.

I take your point Patrick, unfortunately people such as yourself who do take an active role in informing themselves of the issues of the day are few and far between both at home and abroad. In a perfect world I would prefer to take the vote away from the Sun reading,reality TV watching morons at home and give it to informed voters abroad. People who don’t bother to vote here should have it taken away and given to someone who actually does care about the future of the country. In fact it might even be a good exercise to have an election where the voters abroad would have the sole voting rights as they would be looking in with a fresh view and non party or parochial ideas. Voter apathy here his risen by huge amounts over the last few years but no-one seems to care anymore.

On another note I spent last Tuesday visiting two TD’s offices and the Franchise Office trying to find out why I had TWO votes in the last election. Apparently just because I use my parents address in my parents constituency as a postal address for some correspondence the Government decided to put my name on the register without even asking me. It was then up to me not to break the law and use both votes. I had to go in and get my name taken off one of the registers. This happens quite often I’m told. If someone really wanted a vote….. :-) !

If they weren’t so stupid in the past handing out passports because someone’s grandparents were born here, then this wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately lots of people who know nothing about this country, or have no real connection with it, have Irish passports. Letting these people vote would be crazy.

Two separate issues..

1. The Certificate provides a standard by which people can prove their Irishness. As opposed to the old standard of people claiming their Irishness through their grandfather’s sheepdog who once licked the Rose of Tralee. Could be a good gimmick – I’m thinking cheap pints on Paddy’s Day on proof of Irishness Certificate.

2. The Voting issue is not to do with ancestry and Irishness per se. It’s a citizenship issue. Citizens of countries living abroad with a valid passport often have the capability of absentee voting. Many feel that Irish people should have this capability, not least because emigration is forced upon us and not a choice. The emigrants should get a say in what happens while their gone so that they might one day get to return.

1. Good point, Obama had better sign up quick before the “Birthers” jump all over this and claim that he’s not Irish.

2. I addressed this before in another topic and what I proposed was that people who emigrate should have a vote over a certain time limit so that they retain the right to have a say in their future should they decide to return home. The reason for the time limit is that after let’s say 5 or 10 years most people will lose touch with what is going on in their locality on a day to day basis as it were. Nationally they might only get their information from limited sources and may not have the full picture. I have three Uncles and an Aunt living abroad for anything up to 30 years and would probably tell you that they only have a general gist of what is going on. They might someday return to Ireland but they would always be the first to say how much Ireland has changed each time they come home. Ireland might change but their attitudes and perceptions might still be the same as the last time they spent time here 5 years ago. This I think is the main stumbling block to allowing those abroad to vote.

is this some kind of paddy joke they should give people money if there brave enough to call themselves irish i wonder will it be index linked