British people living in Ireland who want to vote in the UK referendum on EU membership have been urged to register online for a postal vote.
Launching a campaign to get Britons here to register online as soon as possible, British ambassador Dominick Chilcott said the referendum was the most important decision for the UK in a generation and the voices of Britons in Ireland needed to be heard.
The referendum will be held on June 23rd and the deadline for registering to vote is June 6th.
Britons living in Ireland who wish to register must have been registered in a UK constituency within the past 15 years. Once registered as overseas voters, they may cast their ballots either by post, proxy or by returning to the UK to vote in person.
Expatriate community
The 2011 census recorded 288,627 people living in the Republic who said they were born in the UK. The British expatriate community in the Republic is the second largest such group in Europe, after Spain which is host to 800,000 UK nationals.
“It’s a really big issue with far-reaching consequences and those consequences of course are not just for the UK, they are consequences for the UK’s neighbours and the relationship which the UK has with its neighbours, and there is no relationship richer, more complex, and in many ways more rewarding that the relationship between Britain and Ireland,” Mr Chilcott said.
He added that his role was to raise awareness among UK voters here and to explain British government policy rather than argue for it.
Subtle distinction
“It is for the campaigns and the politicians to argue for one point of view or the other but as the British government’s representative here, it is my role to explain the British government’s position and there is a subtle distinction [between advocating and purely explaining] because it is the British government’s position, of course, is that we should remain.
“So I’m explaining why the British government believes we should remain [but] without campaigning,” Mr Chilcott said.
