Vol. 566 No. 4
123 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the action he intends to take to encourage and facilitate greater voter turnout at elections, having regard to the findings of the CSO quarterly national household survey on voter participation and abstention, and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13059/03]
The recent CSO quarterly national household survey on voter participation and abstention provides valuable new information on attitudes to voting and on the causes for non-voting among the public. The survey establishes a strong correlation between turnout and increasing age of voters and indicates that 70% of those surveyed are very or fairly satisfied with the working of democracy in Ireland. Another interesting finding is that over 60% of the people responding to the survey did not have a preference regarding the day of the week on which voting occurs.
In general, the results of the CSO survey indicate that publicly-funded awareness campaigns regarding electoral participation are properly targeted. Advertising of this kind has been designed to address younger voters in particular. In addition, much of this advertising budget is concentrated on the need for voters to register a priority highlighted by the survey finding that "not registered" was the most commonly cited reason for abstaining from voting. The challenge is to intensify awareness efforts in both these areas and to make them more effective.
The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001 addresses barriers to voter registration and voting that exist within the current system and provides for a range of measures which will make a positive contribution to encouraging voter participation. Among the measures included in the Act are provisions for photographs and party emblems on ballot papers, earlier opening of polling stations, the display of a large print copy of ballot papers in polling buildings, companion voting for persons with literacy difficulties, voting by poll workers and provision that a registered voter who changes address can apply for entry in the supplementary register. In addition, the Act pro vides a statutory basis for the introduction of electronic voting and vote counting which will be extended countrywide in 2004 following its successful use in seven constituencies at the second Nice referendum.
The Referendum Act 2001 provided the Referendum Commission with a new function of promoting awareness of the referendum and encouraging citizens to vote. The recently published Referendum Commission report refers in positive terms to this additional function.
As part of the PPF initiative, extended publicity campaigns to promote voter registration were undertaken in the three-year period to the end of 2002.
Additional Information.
Separate information campaigns were carried out to promote the introduction of electronic voting at the general election and the second Nice referendum in 2002 and an extensive campaign will also be undertaken prior to the countrywide roll out of the electronic system in 2004. This campaign will contain a strong focus on encouraging voter turnout.
My Department will continue to keep under review measures which will contribute to improving voter participation having particular regard to the findings in the CSO survey, the Referendum Commission report and any other relevant research.
Could I suggest to the Minister of State that he appears to have missed the point of the CSO survey, the most significant finding of which is that almost 60% of those who did not vote cite circumstantial reasons for not voting: they were not on the register or they were on the register in the wrong place; they were away from base on the day of the election or they could not get to vote, or reasons of that kind. The Minister of State has power to remedy all of those problems. Would he accept that the electoral registers to which we are operating are in a deplorable mess and that steps need to be taken urgently to ensure that the electoral register is accurate? Would he also accept that the present system of council officials going around on their bicycles looking in windows to see if somebody is resident where he or she is supposed to be resident is clearly not working and that a new system of drawing up electoral registers and maintaining them will have to be introduced?
Second, since the reasons that people give for not voting include that they could not get to the polling station or that they were too busy, would he consider extending the number of days on which an election might take place, holding elections at weekends or perhaps giving a facility to voters for advance voting when they know that they are going to be away from home? The system that we have at the moment of polling stations in school rooms is out of date and perhaps polling arrangements should be put in place to allow people to vote in their shopping centres or wherever they might be on the day or days when polling is taking place. If the Government improved the opportunities for people to vote that would probably contribute more than advertising campaigns to a higher turnout.
Could the Minister of State agree, perhaps under the aegis of the Oireachtas committee on the environment and local government to set up an all-party group which in conjunction with the appropriate officials from his Department, would look at the CSO report to examine what practical steps can be taken to overcome the obstacles which are preventing so many people from voting?
The information which has been made available to us through the CSO is helpful. It was published on 30 April and I have had an opportunity of looking at it quickly prior to the tabling of this priority question. The elector has a responsibility in this to ensure that he or she is on the register and it is no different in Donegal, Dún Laoghaire or Cork to any other part of the country. The question of establishing a new system is not something that we have considered. The current system has served us reasonably well. There is a difference in that in the past it was the responsibility of the rate collector, who called to every house. With the abolition of rates, that became the role, through the local authority, of the revenue collector, who does not have that responsibility, making it somewhat difficult. However, certain steps were taken. For the 1997 election, there was a supplement to allow for change of address, and that has worked reasonably well, but not as well as we would like. We would like to be 100% fool-proof.
For some more than others.
Of course, that is a matter for each local authority, but I know that we have a responsibility to supervise matters, and we are anxious that it is done properly. Whether I wish to vote in my local supermarket or school is not a major issue. The polling stations are reasonably near, and we must be realistic about that too. Who is to decide? Must we inform the local authority in advance of where we want to vote? We must examine all that, and it might be somewhat more attractive with the new electronic voting system which will be in place for the 2004 elections.
That has nothing to do with it.
I want to take the opportunity to examine the matter. The political parties have a major role to play. Were it not for the various candidates from the various parties, it might be lower and more difficult.
That is totally open to abuse.
If the Deputy, his party, Fine Gael or any of the other parties have views on the subject, I would, certainly initially, be very happy to meet representatives to see how we can improve the system. At this stage, I will not undertake to set up an all-party committee, though we could examine that as a first step. The door is always open and we can arrange a meeting with the various representatives to see how we can improve matters.
