I beg to move the Second Reading of this Bill. The Bill deals with the details of machinery for the Seanad elections. It covers such matters as the fixing of the date for the formation of the panel and for a variation of the purposes prescribed by the Electoral Act of 1923 for the holding of elections which would be unsuited for such an election as this particular election to the Seanad. It prescribes a change also in the form of the ballot paper. This is considered necessary owing to the large number of names that will appear on the panel. Because there will be a considerable interval between the nominations and the date of the declaration of the poll, provision is made to meet the contingency of the death of any candidate. The Electoral Act of 1923 was the one which provided the machinery for the carrying out of elections hitherto. The various stages date from the formation of the panel, and it assumes that the persons whose names appear on the panel would not die before they were elected to the Seanad. The new Article 32a in the Bill which we have just considered, refers to the day appointed by law for the completion of the panel, and in this Bill we prescribe how the day is to be fixed.
It will be obvious that a time limit must be fixed during which ex-Senators —any outgoing Senators—may signify their desire to be included in the panel in respect of a particular election. Now, as to the remaining portions of the Bill, assume that the number of vacancies to be filled was fifteen, and the number of names on the panel was forty-five, Sections 2 to 5 of the Bill would not be necessary in that event, if it were always a case of having fifteen vacancies, and forty-five candidates. But, in fact, there will be at least fifty-seven names on the panel, and there would be the possibility of eighty, assuming that no more Senators die or resign in the interval.
A ballot paper containing forty-five names would be a sheet two feet eight inches long by seven inches wide, and with eighty names, the ballot paper would be a sheet of five feet in length. Accordingly, it is proposed to leave the arrangement of names to the discretion of the Minister for Local Government. It will be possible to provide a ballot paper not unduly long or unduly wide, which can be marked and counted with the minimum of inconvenience.
In the event of a candidate dying before the panel is formed, the Dáil resolutions provide for a further name to be added to the list, but once the panel is formed, under the first Section of this Bill, there is no authority to alter it, and immediately it is complete it will be necessary to commence printing in view of the large number of ballot papers required. In an election to the Dáil when a candidate dies before the opening of the poll, the poll is countermanded, but at a Seanad election that would entail the re-assembly of the Dáil or Seanad during the month of September for the sole purpose of reforming the panel or else the election of a candidate who is dead. It is suggested that every first preference in such a case should be disregarded and a second preference regarded as a first preference and so on.
In the event of some person whose name appears on the panel dying before the date of election, if the candidate dies after the counting has commenced, the election might proceed in one of two ways. One way would be to allow the counting to proceed as though the candidate had not died and fill a further vacancy as proposed in the Bill, or to re-count the papers. The first proposal, though not very scientific, is justifiable on the grounds that the additional candidate elected is definitely next in order of preference, that his period of office will not be for the full period of twelve years, and that he had been selected by the Dáil or Seanad previously at the panel selection. The second proposal would mean a delay of possibly a few months in ascertaining the result of the election, with probably no very different result.
At a Dáil general election the order in which candidates are elected is of no importance. It is merely necessary to fill a particular five, six or seven vacancies as the case may be, and the returning officer is relieved of any obligation to transfer votes where the only question at issue might be the order of election. At Seanad elections the period of office of the candidate elected, sixteenth and so on, is fixed by the proviso to Article 34 of the Constitution, and consequently the order of elections is a matter of importance. The rule proposed in this matter is similar to the one passed by the Dáil for the purposes of the first Seanad elections in the rules which were adopted by the Dáil on the 1st November, 1922.