Anyone with a valid Irish passport will be entitled to vote in future presidential elections if a referendum is passed in 18 months’ time, the diaspora minister Ciaran Cannon has signalled.

Cannon is finalising plans to allow Irish passport holders living abroad, or anyone entitled to obtain such a passport, to be allowed to vote in presidential elections from 2025 onwards.

A referendum on whether to extend the vote is pencilled in for June 2019.