asked the Minister for Local Government the sections of the Acts making it an offence to personate at elections.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Personation at Elections.
10.
Under Sections 3 and 56 of the Prevention of Electoral Abuses Act, 1923, personation at Dáil elections is an offence. Section 25 of the Act provides for the arrest of persons committing the offence and the penalties are prescribed by Section 6. Sections 3, 6 and 25 are applied to presidential and local elections and to referenda by section 32 of the Presidential Elections Act, 1937, section 39 and the Third Schedule of the Local Government Act, 1941, and section 29 of the Referendum Act, 1942. They are applied to Seanad elections by section 10 of the Constitution (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1937, and section 25 of the Seanad Electoral (University Members) Act, 1937.
Is the Minister aware that all the Parties treat these sections as a joke, that that is why the Act is broken in a thousand and one ways in every constituency and no one is ever charged? The Parties behave like gangsters in Chicago. They look upon it as their business, not the Guards' business. There is never a prosecution.
Question No. 11.
It is still a joke and I want to know if the Minister knows it is treated in that way.