Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín has today moved the First Stage of the Forty-first Amendment of the Constitution (Voting Rights in Presidential Elections) Bill 2025, which will extend Presidential voting rights to citizens in the North. Speaking after the Bill passed its First Stage, the Meath West TD said: “The purpose of the Aontú Bill is to ensure that all adult citizens living in Ireland, north and south are entitled under law to vote in a Presidential election.
Shockingly, an Irish citizen in the north can stand in a presidential election, win a presidential election, be the president of Ireland, but can’t vote in a presidential election. Imagine the joy that Irish citizens in the north of Ireland would experience, if for 1st time since 1918, they could democratically participate as equal Irish citizens in an all-Ireland election. That they currently cannot means we are operating a two-tier citizenship. This is not a zero-sum proposal. Affording Irish citizens the right to vote in the north does not remove one right from our Unionist brothers and sisters.
I understand that all political parties in the South have at one time or another stated that they support the right of Irish citizens in the north of Ireland to vote in presidential elections. Yet, it is the Irish Government that is withholding democratic rights from 700,000 Irish people in the North. That is shocking. It is anti-democratic. We are now putting legislation into action to right an historic wrong. It’s not within the power of Westminster nor Stormont. Neither has the power to grant this right to Irish citizens. This is in the gift of the Dáil and so we are acting here.
Opinion polls show that the vast majority of Irish people in the south of Ireland favour a referendum on a united Ireland. This Bill facilitates a real and practical step towards democratic self-determination. The Aontú proposal is not unusual. In many countries – including European countries such as France and Poland – citizens of the state who are not resident in the jurisdiction, can still vote in presidential elections. On foot of Aontú announcing this bill, Sinn Féin tabled a non-binding motion in Stormont calling for the same objective.
The motion was carried with a majority of elected of MLAs in Stormont. This is significant. The polls indicate that the majority of Irish people are in favour of this Bill. The majority of parties here in the Dáil say that they support the objective and a majority of MLAs voted to support the objective. Yet there has been no progress – I believe that this is due to party politics. I believe that party self-interest is eclipsing the national interest.
In working towards the re-introduction of this Bill, I contacted all Party Leaders to ask them to co-sign it as we wanted to make it a cross-party issue. Two parties replied, Independent Ireland, who co-signed the Bill and the Green Party, which said that they will support it. No other party replied, not even Sinn Féin.
As this Bill progresses through the Dáil, it will require time and it will require votes. We are again today calling on all those parties who have said they would support this important Bill to openly do so, and together we can re-enfranchise those in the North who wish to vote for their Head of State.”
