Irish urged to encourage friends to vote in EU referendum

The British ambassador to Ireland has urged Irish people to encourage friends who are eligible to vote in the United Kingdom's referendum on EU membership to "make their voice heard".

Describing the referendum question as "the most important that the UK will take about its future in a generation", Dominick Chilcott said there was no need to be "fatalistic" about it.

"Ireland has a lot of skin in the game. You may not have a vote, but I bet you all know people who do have a vote," he told an audience yesterday evening at Trinity College Dublin.

British citizens in Ireland can vote in the referendum provided they have lived in the UK in the past 15 years. Irish people living in the UK can also vote.

“If you know people – either Brits in Ireland or Irish people living in Britain – by all means please talk to them,” Mr Chilcott said. “If they’re not thinking about the Irish connection on this issue, encourage them to do so and encourage them to make their voice heard.”

More than 112,000 British nationals were recorded as living in Ireland in the 2011 census, while some 407,000 people living in Britain identified themselves as Irish-born in the same year.

According to figures collated by the UK Electoral Commission, just under 200,000 foreign-resident British citizens have applied to be added to the register in the past year, which would suggest that just a small proportion of British expats will be eligible to vote next month.

No figures are available for the number of British immigrants in Ireland who have registered, but a spokesman for the British embassy in Dublin said it was important to note that more than 180,000 British nationals overseas had registered since the foreign office began its expat registration campaign in support of the commission.

The deadline for registrations is June 7th. Eligible voters who wish to remain in Ireland can still appoint a proxy to vote on their behalf. gov.uk/register-to-vote