THE Taoiseach has confirmed that two referendums could be held as early as next year on gender equality in the Republic. Earlier this year Minister Simon Coveney said that the Covid pandemic had set dates for other planned referenda back. One referendum that was planned before the coronavirus outbreak was on the plan for people living in Northern Ireland and the Irish diaspora around the world to vote in future Irish Presidential elections. Sinn Féin Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile is eager for the government to set a date for that referendum so that Irish citizens living in the North and overseas can vote during the 2025 Presidential election. “Keep in mind that it is a Programme for Government commitment," he said. "Parties have indicated their support for it and if you go back to 2014 the Constitutional Convention agreed overwhelmingly that the vote should be extended to citizens outside the State, so I suppose in the context of recognising the fall-out of Brexit and ensuring that citizens have rights, citizens have franchise – remember Leo’s famous statement that people in the North would never be left behind again by an Irish government – then I think that it’s time,” he said. The Short Strand man acknowledges that there has been little movement from the government on the issue since Covid.
