An increase in inward migration to Ireland in recent years has resulted in a rise in the spread of conspiracy theories and extremist language about migrants and refugees.
These conspiracies occasionally focus on Government TDs and Ministers, who extremists believe are not fulfilling their electoral mandate because they claim that elected representatives are prioritising the rights of non-Irish citizens and refugees over those who are born here and who are of Irish ethnicity.
One anti-migrant narrative suggests that politicians are using foreign nationals and refugees to manipulate elections by allowing them to vote.
The claim seeks to undermine the integrity of Ireland’s electoral process and the current Government, but ignores the fact that foreign nationals are only allowed to vote in some elections.
In reality, the practice has been allowed for decades and is not unique to recent trends in migration or asylum seeking, and it is also permitted in other European Union countries.
What are the facts?
Irish citizens are allowed to vote in local, general and European elections, but things are more complicated for those who are not citizens.
Regardless of the election, all eligible voters must be on the electoral register in order to cast a vote, and must be over 18 years old and reside in Ireland.
General elections are held every five years at most in Ireland (though they are held more often than that if the Government of the day falls or if it calls an early election).
Only Irish citizens and British citizens who live in Ireland can vote in General Elections. The same rules apply for by elections, which occur when a TD resigns from the Dail, or if they die or otherwise have to be replaced (for example if they become a Member of the European Parliament).
The Ninth Amendment to the Constitution allows non-Irish citizens to vote in General Elections, but only British citizens are granted this by law because the United Kingdom has a similar law for Irish citizens.
Similar arrangements exist in various countries around the world, for example: Portuguese people living in Brazil may vote in Brazilian elections and vice versa, and many Commonwealth countries allow resident citizens from other Commonwealth countries to vote in national elections.
Other countries, such as Chile, Malawi, and New Zealand take these laws even further and permit anyone who is resident to vote in national elections (though some require that people have been living in the country for a set period of time).
However, this is not the case for general elections in Ireland.
Separately, there are different rules for local elections, which allow people to vote for city and county councillors on local authorities. These elections are also held every five years.
Councillors create policies for local authorities, which are in charge of services such as roads, planning, housing, parks, community development, environment, and things like libraries and fire services.
Local elections are enshrined in the Irish Constitution, following the Twentieth Amendment, which was approved by referendum in 1999 and which says that foreign nationals can vote.
Asylum seekers have been eligible to vote in local elections since 2004, when Temporary Registration Certificates were explicitly allowed as identity documents for voting.
Other foreign nationals resident in the State have been able to vote in local elections since before that change.
Ireland’s situation is not unusual. Many other countries also allow non-citizens to vote in local elections, including many in the European Union, such as Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Other countries do so on the basis of bi-lateral arrangements with other nations, as is the case between Ireland and the UK.
Local elections can’t determine who gets to stay or get into national government, meaning that non-citizen votes cannot keep or remove a sitting government from power (despite what conspiracy theories may suggest).
European elections are also held every five years, usually at the same time as local elections. These see Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) decided upon, where representatives are voted to become politicians in the main law-making body of the European Union.
The parliament elects the President of the European Commission, the EU’s main executive body which manages EU policy, and appoints Commissioners, as well as setting the EU’s budget.
The European Parliament is in many ways the EU’s counterpart to the Dail, whereas the Commission could be compared to a national government involving different ministers.
Like many EU laws, individual countries are given leeway in how they manage European elections.
For example, some countries don’t divide their territory into constituencies or allow people younger than 18 to vote, or use a “list” system rather than a single transferable vote (the latter system being favoured in Ireland).
However, all EU countries must allow resident EU citizens to vote and stand for election (though some countries require that voters must reside in the area for a minimum period).
To vote in European elections in Ireland, voters must be an EU citizen, over 18, and listed on the Register of Electors, which requires that a person is “ordinarily resident” in the Republic of Ireland.
Similarly, Irish people living in other EU countries may be entitled to vote there; however, an individual cannot vote in European elections in more than one country (e.g. by voting in person where they live as well as sending a postal vote to their second ‘home’ country).
The principles guiding these election procedures have been in place since the founding treaties of the European Union; however, these were further enshrined as a right of EU citizens in the Lisbon Treaty, whose force in Irish law was approved by referendum in 2009.
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