§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many citizens of the Republic of Ireland are entitled to vote in United Kingdom general elections (a) in Great Britain and (b) in Northern Ireland; and how many British citizens would be entitled to vote in the Republic of Ireland if a reciprocal situation existed.
§ Mr. BrittanThe labour force survey taken in 1979 suggested that there may be close to half a million citizens of the Irish Republic aged 18 and over resident in the United Kingdom. Those whose names appear on an electoral register in Great Britain would be entitled to vote at all elections. In Northern Ireland the electoral register contains a marker against the names of those who are entitled to vote in Westminster and European Parliament elections but not in local elections. There are some 5,0004W such electors on the 1979 register, almost all of whom would be citizens of the Irish Republic. But there are also on the Northern Ireland electoral register other citizens of the Irish Republic who are not separately identified.
The only available information concerning British citizens who might be entitled to vote in parliamentary elections in the Republic of Ireland if a reciprocal situation existed is that according to their 1971 census, some 52,000 persons (not all of whom would be of voting age) resident in the Republic claimed that they had been born in Great Britain. Some of these persons would have acquired citizenship of the Irish Republic and would therefore already have the right to vote in such elections.