Irish in Britain CEO Jennie McShannon attended the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs as a witness for the discussion on overseas voting rights. The issue of voting rights for the multitudes of Irish in Britain and elsewhere is quickly gaining traction both here in Britain and in Ireland and Irish in Britain have been involved in the issue for some time. You can see more information on our work around extending voting rights and representation to date here
Jennie told the committee that many of today’s Irish emigrants were working in Britain to sustain a mortgage and had a life back home. She said they wanted to have representation in the Oireachtas and a minister for diaspora affairs. Suggestions that the volume of Irish people living abroad could distort election results were wrong, she said, pointing to the experience in the UK. She said people in the UK were entitled to vote up to 15 years after leaving the country, while German citizens were entitled to vote for 25 years after leaving.
Jennie was joined by Dr Adrian Kavanagh from NUI Maynooth who told the committee that because of the age profile of many of today’s emigrants, turnout would probably be low and would be unlikely to cause an upset to the overall election result. He said research in the UK had shown that of the three million UK citizens living abroad and registered to vote, only 23,000 actually took up the opportunity to vote, or less than 1%.
You can watch the entire hearing on overseas voting rights here (opens in Windows Media Player – it will download and you will have open and save the file)
You can watch Jennie deliver her evidence as an expert witness on the issue here (opens in Windows Media Player – it will download and you will have open and save the file)
