I move:
That Seanad Éireann approves of the following regulations in draft:
Registration of Electors (Amendment) Regulations, 1977,
a copy of which regulations in draft form was laid before Seanad Éireann on the 9th day of December, 1977.
Registration of Electors (Amendment) Regulations, 1977: Motion.
The Minister has asked me to apologise for his absence. He is, I understand, engaged in the Dáil. These draft regulations are being brought before the House in accordance with section 7 of the Electoral Act, 1963, which provides that, where regulations under that section are proposed to be made, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the regulations shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each House.
Section 7 of the Electoral Act, 1963 enables the Minister for the Environment to make regulations providing for the registration of persons as electors at Dáil and local elections. Regulations under this section entitled the Registration of Electors and Juries Acts (Specification of Dates) Regulations, 1963 were made in 1963 and these contain the detailed procedure in relation to the registration of electors.
Section 3 of the European Assembly Elections Act, 1977 specifies the persons who will be entitled to vote at elections to the Assembly of the European Communities. The section provides that a person shall be entitled to be registered as an Assembly elector if he has reached the age of 18 years, is ordinarily resident here and is either a citizen of Ireland or a national of a member state of the Community other than Ireland. The franchise at Assembly elections will, therefore, be somewhat wider than at Dáil elections, where the right to vote is confined to residents who are citizens of Ireland, and less wide than at local government elections, where all residents enjoy the right to vote regardless of their country of origin. The section applies the provisions relating to the registration of electors contained in the Electoral Act, 1963 to the registration of electors for Assembly elections.
Because the electorate at Assembly elections will not be identical with either the Dáil electorate or the local government electorate, it will be necessary to distinguish in the register between those who will be entitled to vote at Assembly elections and those who will not and this is the principal purpose of the present draft regulations. The draft regulations propose that electors who are neither citizens of Ireland nor nationals of one of the other member states and are, therefore, entitled to vote at local elections only, will be denoted by the letter (L). Electors who are nationals of one of the other member states and are, therefore, entitled to vote at Assembly elections and local elections will be identified by the letters (LE). No distinguishing letter is required in the case of Irish citizens who will be entitled to vote at all three levels.
The draft regulations also provide for sending copies of draft registers and registers to representatives elected to the Assembly and for the supply of copies of the register to candidates, returning officers and local returning officers at Assembly elections and, where necessary, definitions in the 1963 regulations are being extended to include references to Assembly electors.
The opportunity of the draft regulations is being taken to remove certain provisions and references in the 1963 regulations which were rendered obsolete by the Local Elections Act, 1972 and the Juries Act, 1976. The 1972 Act repealed the provision whereby a person could be registered as a local government elector by virtue of the occupation of land or premises and the Juries Act abolished the need to identify on the register persons liable to serve as jurors.
A detailed explanatory memorandum has been circulated with the draft regulations. If the House requires further clarification on any point I will be glad to assist.
Question put and agreed to.