I move amendment No. 28:
In page 7, before section 14, to insert the following new section:
"14.—(1) The Minister shall by regulations prescribe dates for the purposes of paragraphs 2 and 4 of the Table to paragraph (4) of Rule 1 of the Second Schedule to the Electoral Act, 1992, in respect of applications for entry in the postal voters list under section 14(d) of that Act for the register of electors to be published in the year 1997.
(2) Where regulations are made under subsection (1) of this section—
(a) the registration authority shall deem an application for entry in the special voters list in respect of that register from an elector who is ordinarily resident at his or her residence to be an application for entry in the postal voters list pursuant to section 14(d) of the Electoral Act, 1992,
(b) the registration authority shall enter in the postal voters list the name of every elector referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection in relation to whom an application for entry in the special voters list is granted and the name of any such elector shall not be included in the special voters list and, where appropriate, the registration authority shall remove the name of any such elector from the special voters list to which the application relates, and
(c) the notice the registration authority is required to publish pursuant to Rule 21 of the Second Schedule to the Electoral Act, 1992, which is applied by virtue of section 14A (inserted by this Act) of the Electoral Act, 1992, to an application for entry in the postal voters list under section 14(d) of that Act shall, in relation to that register, include a reference to the fact that any application for entry in the special voters list received from an elector who is ordinarily resident at his or her residence shall be deemed to be an application for entry in the postal voters list pursuant to the said section 14(d).
(3) Every regulation made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.".
