Emigrants
Votes for Emigrants
Ireland is one of the most difficult countries in the world to exercise a democratic right to vote - the postal vote facility, even for those resident in the country but who are away/out of their constituencies on the day of an election, is highly restricted. But once a person is no longer resident in Ireland, they lose all entitlement to vote. I believe this should be changed to allow emigrants the vote. US citizens and British citizens, for example, retain the right to vote for a period of years after they have stopped residing in their home countries. It would be easy to change the law in Ireland to provide for a similar facility, and if elected I would push for such a change.
The University Seanad election is of course the only election in which Irish citizens may exercise a right to vote from abroad, but the fact that we can do so shows even more clearly how easy it would be to extend such a right to general elections.
