Northern Ireland

Letter urges Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to restore the north's EU voting rights

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Picture by Damien Storan/PA Wire
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Picture by Damien Storan/PA Wire Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Picture by Damien Storan/PA Wire

LEO Varadkar has been urged to help address the north's democratic deficit by restoring EU voting rights.

Historian Dr Francis Costello and Ciaran White, a senior law lecturer at Ulster University, have written to the taoiseach calling on him to "match words with effective action".

The letter is the pair's latest salvo in a long-running campaign to obtain post-Brexit voting rights in the European Parliament for all citizens in Northern Ireland.

They argue that the greater the democratic deficit, the "more compelling" the case for restoring representation in Brussels and Strasbourg.

They welcome the Fine Gael leader's recent assertion that both Brexit and the protocol were "imposed on Northern Ireland without cross community consensus".

"We respectfully submit that now is the time for you to match your words in underscoring this democratic deficit by using the powers you have to seek an effective remedy to restore those rights," the letter states.

"This means taking advantage of the path laid open by Maros Sefcovic as vice-president of the European Commission. Indeed virtually all parties in Northern Ireland have spoken about this democratic deficit that has beset all communities here while major decisions are made affecting them."

The correspondence agues that "Europe is open" to correcting the situation and that as a "key member state", the Dublin government should be driving the campaign.

It notes how the Republic gained two of the north's three European Parliament seats that became available as a result of the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

"As a democrat committed to the democratic process and as the leader of the Irish government we urge you act to right this wrong and see the democratic deficit that has been thrust upon the 1.9 million residents of Northern Ireland corrected with urgency," they write.

"Such an effort can also help form an important basis for bringing all communities together."

The pair say it is only in the gift of Mr Varadkar's government to restore voting the rights to "third country nationals" and they cite the example of Turkish Cypriots, resident in northern Cyprus, being permitted to vote EU elections.

"The Irish government if it chooses, can also allow third country nationals to vote in those elections - simply put: the Irish government could also extend the right to those UK citizens living in Northern Ireland regardless of their passport," the letter says.

"We respectfully propose that you act as as head of the Irish government with urgency at this critical time to help correct the democratic deficit by allowing the right to vote in EU parliamentary elections be extended to Irish, UK and other EU passport holders in the interest of democratic inclusion."