Sir, – Before any decision is taken to extend the franchise to Irish passport holders in other jurisdictions, it may be worth considering the number of very recent recipients of Irish passports in Britain following the Brexit referendum.
Between 2016 and 2020, more than 422,000 Irish passports were issued to British residents, and figures suggest some 100,00 more have been issued in 2021/2022.
The figures do dot include applications from Northern Ireland where, in 2020, 48,911 applications were received through NI Passport Express alone, and do not include those made directly through Dublin. Incidentally, this is 356 greater than the number of NI applications for British passports.
In the early post-Brexit wave, the majority of British-based people seeking Irish passports were no doubt influenced by a desire to remain “European”, and was so stated by many. However, since then as Brexiters have discovered long airport queues and other disadvantages of being a “third” country, we can be pretty certain many EU phobic British applications have been received and processed. As it is, since Brexit, some half a million Irish passports have been issued to residents of “mainland” Britain.
Most of these were not born in Ireland and have never lived in Ireland. An article published by BBC News in September 2016 calculated that 6.7 million people living in Britain, who do not have an Irish passport, are entitled to one.
While it is emotionally heart-warming to think of so many who want to identify as Irish, to open our polling booths to such vast numbers, whose beliefs, motivations and mindsets are completely unknown, would be foolhardy in the extreme. – Yours, etc,
LIAM STENSON,
Galway.
A chara, – If the vote were extended to me, someone who has never lived or worked in the State, I would feel distinctly embarrassed. That said, it would be fitting if Irish passport holders abroad had some representation in a reformed Seanad, if only to register their existence and their importance to the State’s coffers. – Is mise,
TERRY WALSH,
Cartagena,
Murcia,
Spain.
Sir, – Richard Logue (Letters, May 4th) calls for a Seanad panel representing the Irish abroad. Besides this surely being the start of a slippery slope of diaspora voting rights, I would suggest a more appropriate change to voting rights, with regard to the Seanad, would be to enable the ordinary resident citizenship to have a vote in Seanad elections. – Yours, etc,
PAT MULLEN,
Kilkerley,
Co Louth.