I thank the witnesses for their presentation and their work. During the talks for the programme for Government, we in the Rural Independent Group lobbied for this and we are glad that there is movement. The present situation is archaic. I know of old people who have voted in every election, and who value their vote, being knocked off the register and not realising it until they arrive at the polling station. That is inherently unfair and unjust. I have seen tears and trauma at every election I have been involved in since 1979. That is very unfair. In some cases a whole household or a whole street of houses has been knocked off. In a situation like that, where people have always been on the register and always voted, there should be some mechanism for a quick-fix when it is discovered that they have been removed.
In many rural communities, the people presenting are well known to the presiding officer. It is very unfair that a situation like that should arise and surely the system should be able to adjust for that. There has to be use of the PPSN so that people can go online and register immediately. I refer to the current system of dates, closing dates, the supplementary register and advertisements for all of that. It is chaotic and people easily miss those dates. We know why the present situation involving the Garda station was instituted. It is unfortunate as well but it did happen.
Turning to the issue of fraud, and some issues that were not fraud, there was much duplicated and triplicated voting in the past two referendums. A man contacted me who received five polling cards. He did not believe that was fraud; it was just inertia. He had registered in every place he had moved to work and it happened that he ended up with five voting cards for different parts of the country. Some of them were not too far apart, perhaps within a 50-mile radius. That must be rectified. I salute the staff who worked in South Tipperary County Council especially. They have been courteous and helpful over the years. In recent years, since the amalgamation of the councils, there has not been the same number of staff.
I was astounded this year. Invariably on polling day, someone would turn up at a polling station and he or she would not get a voting paper. He or she would then ring a politician that he or she knew. This year no staff were on duty in Tipperary and people were referred to Waterford County Council on the day of the vote. I accept they are busy before the vote. I could not believe on the day of vote, however, that people were on leave or whatever. They are, of course, entitled to leave but it should have been organised differently to ensure there was somebody available to answer calls from whomever made them, be that the citizens themselves or a politician's office.
People who had been at the polling booth and had not got a ballot paper walked into my office in Clonmel. Those people were greatly exercised. They had made the effort to go to vote, had a vote and expected to have a vote. It was inherently unfair and hurtful to them that they did not get a ballot paper when they had made that effort. A serious and deep analysis needs to be done as to why there was such inertia and such a volume of mistakes. In every election one street or another somewhere is knocked off. A whole convent of sisters was knocked off the last time. They cherish their votes. I am not aiming that comment at anyone; I am just saying they were knocked off.
I had an 88 year old man at one stage who had voted in every election since 1918. He went to vote and could not. He was devastated and could not be consoled. There must be some mechanism in this modern day and age to deal with that. We will have to look at best practices in other countries such as America where people can register up to 24 hours before the vote. It is the nature of the beast that we want people to be involved in politics, we want people to vote and exercise their franchise but the system must be made voter-friendly and accessible.
With all the creative ideas of the various politicians, political parties and machines, it may be down to the last minute before people get focused on issues. This needs a major overhaul and there must be a consciousness of people who are outrageously offended by the system. They had votes but were unceremoniously knocked off the register. There was no sympathy, empathy or engagement. It was just tough. We then have the massive fraud in the past two referenda about which there were boasts and lies. People voted in different places. A French student contacted me who got a voting card but who should not have. She got one at her digs in Galway. That is blatant abuse but not a word was said about it. It was grand. It is disgraceful criminal activity and it should not be tolerated. It needs to be very tight and very reflective of people's views and feelings. They must be able, if they are knocked off inadvertently, to have a process to facilitate them. They are not trying to deceive anyone. They have their identity and are known to the people involved, yet they are suddenly off the register. There are lots of questions to answer and there is a great deal of deep research to be done. I hope there will be a good engagement with the consultation, but getting that out there is the problem. It is about being heard effectively. Like all consultation, it is not easy.
