O’Brien urges voters to register for next Seanad elections

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD today urged graduates to be sure to sign up and register to vote in the new Seanad constituency which is being established to broaden the amount of people who can take part in future Seanad elections. 

The current National University of Ireland (NUI) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD) constituency elections will be the last under the current rules and a new electoral register is being created for future Seanad elections, with thousands of additional people now eligible to register.

Minister O’Brien has urged everyone to check if they are eligible and if so, to register to vote.

He emphasised:

“With just ten days to go before the deadline for this year, I would encourage all Irish citizens with a degree to check if they are eligible to register to vote in the new constituency.    It’s easy to do with a very straightforward process. For many graduates, this will be the first time they will have a Seanad vote, so be sure to register for future elections to exercise this new right.”

Applications to be included in the first Register of Electors for the new constituency can be made online to the Central Registration Authority via www.seanadvoter.ie  or by post until 23 January 2025. The register will be published and come into force on 1 April 2025. An annual revision process will begin in 2026 and the updated register will be published on every 1 June.

Many more people are now entitled to take part in future Seanad elections with the two existing constituencies (NUI and Trinity College Dublin) to be replaced by a single new 6-seat Higher Education constituency. This expanded constituency now includes:

• Atlantic Technological University
• Dublin City University (DCU)
• Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT)
• Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT)
• Maynooth University,
• Munster Technological University (MTU)
• National College of Art and Design (NCAD)
• National University of Ireland (NUI)
• Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI)
• South East Technological University
• Technological University Dublin
• Technological University of the Shannon Midlands Midwest
• University of Dublin (Trinity College)
• University College Cork
• University College Dublin
• University of Galway
• University of Limerick

Irish citizens who are over 18 with a degree from any of these institutions are now eligible to register.

The NUI has been appointed as the Central Registration Authority for the constituency and will prepare and maintain the register of electors.

The last day to register is Thursday 23 January 2025. People will need to submit their applications and any required supporting documents either directly on the application portal on seanadvoter.ie or by post by the deadline.

People currently on the NUI and Trinity College Dublin registers will not be automatically added to the new expanded register and will have to re-register through a streamlined process on www.seanadvoter.ie. Letters have issued to some 170,000 existing electors to advise them of that and so far a significant number of them have submitted applications to register for the new constituency.