I beg to move the Second Reading of this Bill. The Local Government (Dublin) Bill provides that a register of commercial electors shall be prepared in accordance with the franchise enacted in that Bill, that the election shall be held on that register, and that while such election shall be held as a separate election it shall be held approximately at the same time as the election on the ordinary register. The Bill provides machinery under which the register will be prepared and such election carried out. It deals principally with three points. First as regards the franchise. It clears up under Section 2 for the registration officer the persons who shall be entitled to vote in respect of different classes of premises. The registration officer and the returning officer will be the Dublin City Manager and Town Clerk.
In the second place as regards the register, the Bill makes provision by which the register of the commercial electors shall be prepared in practically the same way as the ordinary register. The register will only be prepared in those years in which there will be an election. The register will be published not later than the 1st June in any year and will contain the names of persons who were qualified to be on that register on the 15th November previously. The register will be formed in the same way. There will be the same house-to-house inquiry and the registration officer will have the same responsibility for having a full and proper register as he has in the case of the ordinary local government register. There will be the same publication at suitable dates and the same dates for receiving fresh claims and for hearing objections. In the matter of appeals there will be an appeal to the Circuit Court against any decision of the registration officer that is objected to, and any such appeal will be heard by the Circuit Court on a case stated by the registration officer.
It will be clear that in respect of the first register it will not be possible to have the same period for the preparation of the register. The Bill provides that the first register shall be prepared to contain the names of those who were qualified on the 15th July, 1930, and that for the purpose of making out that register the Minister for Local Government will specify the dates upon which a notice will be given by the registration officer, so that those people entitled to be on the register may claim to have their names put on it. There will be specific dates by which the preliminary list of electors will be published, by which further claims will be made and objections stated, by which the register must be published. The main point is that there will not be in the case of the first register the same house-to-house examination of the position as there will be in subsequent years, and that persons entitled to be on the register will have to claim to go on the register, but they will get a suitable published notice of the fact that it is being prepared.
As regards the election the second schedule refers to the conduct of the election—that is, the reception of nomination papers and the issue of ballot papers. The ordinary rules which apply to elections of this kind for the Oireachtas where postal voting is involved, will apply to this election. Schedule 3 is taken from the Electoral Act, and deals with the counting of the votes.