asked the Minister for Local Government if he will arrange for polls in all future elections and referenda to be held on Sundays.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Sunday Polling.
105.
There are no proposals at present for polls at future elections and referenda to be held on Sundays.
Might I suggest that the advantages of polling on a Sunday are so many and so obvious that the Parliamentary Secretary might reconsider his stand on this matter and introduce proposals in this connection?
This matter was considered by an all-party committee in 1961 who recommended that Sunday, either for the actual poll or for the count, was not a suitable day.
A decade has elapsed since the committee made that recommendation. The experience on the Continent with regard to polling on Sundays is eminently satisfactory and shows that it tends to a high poll. If the poll were held on a Sunday it would ensure that those people who are regularly disfranchised because of the mid-week poll would have the opportunity of voting.
The facts on which the committee based their opinion have not changed in the meantime.