Vol. 201 No. 4
I move:
That it is expedient to authorise such payments out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof and out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas as are necessary to give effect to any Act of the present session to amend and extend the Electoral Acts, 1923 to 1961, the Presidential Elections Acts, 1937 to 1960, the Referendum Acts, 1942 to 1960, the Prevention of Electoral Abuses Act, 1923, and the Acts relating to Local Elections and to provide for related matters.
I want to raise the position of county registrars who act as returning officers. It is true that the freedom and efficiency of our electoral system makes the foundation stone of our democratic state. It follows, I believe, that the county registrar, acting as returning officer, is probably the most efficient single individual discharging a function in connection with elections. It is a function which involves a high degree of skill and responsibility and entails long hours of overtime work, since the ordinary duties of the office of the county registrar must be discharged simultaneously. So far as I am aware, every other officer employed for official purposes at an election is—and rightly so —remunerated for the extra work involved. The county registrar is the sole exception. He receives no extra remuneration, although he has full responsibility for the smooth and efficient running of the election. Frequently he is out of pocket.
A county registrar who discharges the function of a returning officer has to work outside normal office hours and has to travel a great deal, much of that also outside his normal office hours, through whatever constituency he is responsible for. In addition, he has to oil the machinery and make sure the election machine works, all at his own expense. So far as I know, if anyone other than a county registrar acts as returning officer, he is remunerated or paid extra for his services. For example, on certain occasions, senior counsel or solicitors or county secretaries, or even county managers, act as returning officers and when they perform such work, they are remunerated for the extra duties and paid the appropriate fees.
Many members of the county registrar's staff who perform such functions are remunerated for them. The position, so far as I know, is that the county registrars are paid what is regarded as an inclusive salary and this salary is fixed on that basis to cover all the duties including the liability or responsibility for acting as returning officers at elections. There would probably be some justification for this if elections were held at fixed intervals, as local elections are, but in fact there is no regularity in regard to elections and if by-elections are taken into account, elections sometimes occur at intervals of six months or possibly less. When you take account of by-elections and general elections, often elections occur at intervals much more frequent than the normal five years which apply in the case of local elections.
It is difficult to see, therefore, how any fixed remuneration could be applied to the work involved in such events. While it is true that the pay of all civil servants is supposed to be inclusive and to cover whatever duties may be assigned to them, I think it is correct to say that an exception is made in the case of electoral duties. All civil servants and local officials are paid extra, with the sole exception of the county registrar. For example, the clerks of the county registrar's office are all permanent, full-time civil servants. They have duties to perform in connection with elections and they are paid for them. This is not limited to the lower grades. All officials who perform electoral work in connection with elections, whether local or presidential, or returning officers in connection with general elections, receive gratuities or extra emoluments in respect of the work, with the exception, as I said, of county registrars who perform the same work, and, indeed, have the full responsibility of ensuring that the work is carried out, without extra remuneration.
As I understand it, there is a scale of fees in existence in respect of the various officials who perform these different duties and it would merely involve a Ministerial order to ensure that this scale would be extended to county registrars. It is not equitable to make an exception of county registrars as the big responsibility whether in general elections, by-elections or local elections devolves on them. As professional men, most of the officials of the various local authorities, or in certain cases where outside people are recruited for specific tasks, such as senior counsel, barristers or county managers, have an equitable rate of remuneration applied to them.
For that reason, I believe there is a very strong case for remunerating county registrars in the same way as other officials are remunerated, and I want to put it to the Minister, now that this measure is being considered, because it is the first time for a number of years that we have had an opportunity of considering the electoral laws, that the matter should be examined on a sympathetic basis. It is for that reason I have raised it on this stage. It may well be that it will be raised on certain sections of the Bill now before the House. I believe there is a strong case for remunerating county registrars on some equitable basis comparable with that applied in respect of other personnel.
I am personally aware of the situation in Dublin county where there are two constituencies in respect of which the county sheriff discharges the responsibility of returning officer. He has responsibility for Dublin county and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. For all practical purposes, the sheriff cannot discharge certain of the duties so he acts personally in respect of one constituency and engages the services of a professional man in respect of the other. The practice for a great number of years has been to engage senior counsel for this work. So far as I am aware, the person so engaged for that work is paid the appropriate scale of fees or salary in respect of the work discharged.
So far as county constituencies are concerned, because the county registrar discharges these functions, he is not paid any extra remuneration merely because he is remunerated on what is regarded as an inclusive scale. However, if a county is divided, or two counties are joined together, he has the responsibility of running an election in two counties and he is obliged to engage the services of another person to operate one of them. In such cases, the person so engaged is remunerated by the Department for the work performed.
This is a matter which should receive sympathetic consideration when we are legislating afresh in electoral matters. It is on that basis that I mention the matter now on the Money Resolution so that the Minister may consider the matter and, I hope, draft the appropriate regulation so as to provide for payment to these people for work done in whatever elections are held in the future.
I should like to support the arguments put forward by Deputy Cosgrave in this matter. In the measure now before the House for which this money is sought, it is contemplated that voting may go on until 11.30 o'clock at night and that voters in the polling booth at that time should have the opportunity of recording their votes. It might well happen that voting would not end until after 11 o'clock at night. Everybody is aware that in respect of the collection of the ballot boxes, particularly in the rural districts, the county registrar and a senior member of his staff have to be in attendance. They have to receive the boxes and have them sealed up for the night.
We might find these officials working from an hour before the opening of the poll, eight o'clock in the morning, until 2.30 o'clock, 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock the following morning. This is something which the Minister ought to bear in mind in respect of these officials. The amount involved in giving this payment to cover the extra time and labour would be a very small percentage of the total cost of any election. It has been calculated that to give them the appropriate scale of fees would not cost more than three per cent of the cost of an election. I would ask the Minister to consider the matter sympathetically.
During the Second Reading of the Bill, this matter was raised and I did agree to have a look at it. I have done that. The costs of elections, including the payment of the returning officers, are all paid from the Central Fund and are consequently under the control of the Minister for Finance. As Minister of Local Government, I have no function in this matter. I should say that the question of returning officers getting special payment for these matters has been raised by them on several occasions and the answer has been on all these occasions that the salary is inclusive of such duties as these. There it has rested. It is a matter for the Minister for Finance and not the responsibility of the Minister for Local Government.
I do not like raising individual cases but, as I understand it, in a presidential election where the senior returning officer is concerned, in respect of cases where extra officials have to be recruited for the work they are paid an extra fee although in some cases they are civil servants or servants of local authorities and are accordingly remunerated on an inclusive basis. Therefore although the title or description of whatever office they may hold may not be that of county registrar nevertheless they are remunerated on an inclusive basis.
There is a case for allowing extra remuneration in respect of county registrars and while I appreciate that the Minister might not have direct responsibility in the matter, in so far as the scale of fees may be laid down by the Minister for Finance, I would suggest the Minister might make representations to the Minister for Finance that where a county registrar is involved in carrying out duties as returning officer in elections he should be allowed some extra remuneration to cover out-of-pocket expenses.
Where a person is carrying out the duties of a returning officer which duties are outside his ordinary work and are not and never have been part of his terms of appointment, a distinction is recognised. He is paid an extra amount in view of the fact that he is not doing a job which he would be normally expected to do or which falls within the office which he holds.
On the question of making representations I would suggest that this could be usefully and appropriately raised on the Estimate for the Department of Finance and also on the Estimate for the Courts of Justice because it is they who administer the scale of fees and who employ the county registrars. In regard to my making representations on their behalf, I would not at this short notice be prepared to accede to that request but I shall draw the attention of the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Justice to what has been said here by both Deputies who have spoken.
