Debate contribution: Election of the President of Ireland: Voting Rights

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 6 May 2025.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

6 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Election of the President of Ireland: Voting Rights

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4929897

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I speak in strong support of the motion and welcome the fact that Sinn Féin Members have tabled it. It is an extremely important subject, on which it is entirely legitimate that the Assembly gets a chance to make its voice heard. While we disagree with Sinn Féin on some things, I strongly agree with the motion, and I am glad that we are debating it today. In answer to Mr Brett's question, I do not care what the origin is of the Bill that has been mooted in the Dáil; I care about the meat and substance of the issue. In 1998, articles 2 and 3 of the constitution of Ireland, Bunreacht na hÉireann, were replaced — something for which, it is important to say, political unionism had called for decades — with new language, which I will briefly summarise. The replacement article 2 states:

"It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish Nation."

That relates to nationhood and identity. Paula Bradshaw covered the fact that subsequent court cases have clarified that that can be understood to mean citizenship, which is part of the reason why people in Northern Ireland, including many people from non-traditional unionist backgrounds, non-traditional nationalist backgrounds and unionist backgrounds, are applying for Irish passports. Indeed, I have a healthy trade in my office in signing those forms. The new article 3 from 1998 states:

"It is the firm will of the Irish nation, in harmony and friendship, to unite all the people who share the territory of the island of Ireland, in all the diversity of their identities and traditions, recognising that a united Ireland shall be brought about only by peaceful means with the consent of a majority of the people".

In 2025, it is time to give fuller meaning and expression to what, 27 years ago, were new clauses in the Irish constitution. Extending the right to participate in presidential elections to people resident in the North is an entirely sensible and legitimate expression of new articles 2 and 3. Although I and my party are strongly in favour of a new and united Ireland — an Ireland without an international border — that is based on reconciliation, pluralism and uniting the island's people, you do not have to believe in that vision to support or be sympathetic to the motion. It does not prejudge the outcome of any future referendum, even if my view is completely prejudged. This place, Northern Ireland, is part of the island of Ireland. One of the developments that we have seen somewhat uncomfortably in the past little while is a new definition. Occasionally, it has felt as though the primary and senior meaning of the word "Ireland" is the state rather than the island. For those of us who live in this part of Ireland and want to participate not just in the broader Irish nation but in politics on a cross-border and all-island way, it is time that we had the opportunity to vote in presidential elections. It is not a strange or unique idea. As has been said, in multiple other countries around the world, including some in Europe, such as France and Poland, non-resident citizens — that is, citizens of the state who are not resident in the precise jurisdiction — are able to vote in presidential elections. It is also true that, for 14 of the past 20 years, the president of Ireland was from Belfast. She was somebody from Mr Brett's constituency, in fact, and a brilliant president she was. She built bridges with the unionist people of this island. I do not think that having people of the North voting in a presidential election threatens anybody's identity or vision of the future. I have spent more of my adult life living on the island of Britain than the island of Ireland. I am now a politician here, and I make no apology for wanting to unite the people of this island in a new Ireland, but I will always be respectful not just of the unionist tradition but of many unionist people's relationship with the royal family and the monarch. I want them to be respectful of the fact that many of us would like to live in a republic and that many of us think that the true gold standard of citizenship is being able to choose your head of state. Many people in this part of Ireland, be they those from unionist or nationalist backgrounds or those who are somewhere in between or who simply do not care, would very much like to choose their president and choose a president of Ireland. It is an entirely sensible measure.

I support the motion.

802 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:27 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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