European Parliament Elections

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Questions (669)

Andrew Doyle

Question:

669. Deputy Andrew Doyle asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the procedures in place by his Department where notification is received from another EU member state that an Irish citizen has registered his or her European Parliament vote in that member state; if an Irish citizen who switches his or her European Parliament vote to another EU member state and avails of early voting in that member state, if he or she will retain his or her right to vote in local elections in Ireland should he or she be in Ireland on the day of polling; the number of notifications his Department have received from other EU member states regarding Irish citizens registering to vote in the European Parliament elections in another EU member state since 2004 on a year-by-year basis; if he will break down the figures in tabular form on how many notifications his Department has received from each individual member state in each year since 2004; the number of counties that have been notified by his Department that an Irish citizen has switched his or her vote for the European Parliament in another member state, and to break this data down on a local authority basis and yearly basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13185/14]

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Written answers

Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government

The European Parliament Elections Act 1997 gives effect to the detailed arrangements in place in Ireland for implementing the requirements of Council Directive 93/109/EC of 6 December 1993. That Directive provides that EU citizens, who are not nationals of the Member State in which they reside but who meet the same conditions in respect of the right to vote as that State imposes on its own nationals, have the right to vote in that Member State at European Parliament elections.

Within this framework, the Directive provides for a system of declarations by non-national EU citizens, including a declaration of intent to exercise the right to vote in their Member State of residence only. The Directive also provides for information exchange between Member States to help ensure that no person votes more than once at European Parliament elections.

Subject to the requirements of electoral law, an Irish citizen resident in another Member State can vote at the European Parliament election in their Member State of residence and also vote at the local elections in Ireland, either in person or through the post if they are on the postal voters list.

In relation to the transmission of data between Member States, data is transmitted in the year the European Parliament election is held – it is not transmitted annually. The number of notifications received by my Department from other Member States in 2009 was 4,795, as detailed in the following table.

Member State	Number	Notified to registration authorities
Austria	89	0
Belgium	0	0
Bulgaria	0	0
Czech Republic	2	2
Cyprus	15	0
Denmark	392	0
Estonia	4	0
Finland	85	19
France	1,465	0
Germany	958	31
Greece	84	7
Hungary	0	0
Italy	337	56
Latvia	1	0
Lithuania	1	0
Luxembourg	99	0
Malta	25	6
Netherlands	729	0
Poland	1	0
Portugal	66	0
Romania	1	0
Slovenia	0	0
Slovakia	0	0
Spain	0	0
Sweden	441	87
Total	4,795	208

As the information provided in the majority of the 4,795 notifications received from Member States in 2009 was insufficient to identify citizens and/or relevant registration authorities, it was only possible to transmit the information supplied to the re levant registration auth orities in 208 cases, as detailed in the following table.

Local Authority	Number transmitted to local authoritie s
City Councils
Cork	1
Dublin	4
Galway	2
Limerick	2
Waterford	0
County Councils
Carlow	3
Cavan	4
Clare	11
Cork	9
Donegal	9
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown	27
Fingal	3
Galway	3
Kerry	11
Kildare	15
Kilkenny	6
Laois	4
Leitrim	1
Limerick	1
Longford	1
Louth	9
Mayo	7
Meath	9
Monaghan	2
North Tipperary	6
Offaly	6
Roscommon	3
Sligo	7
South Dublin	4
South Tipperary	4
Waterford	4
Westmeath	6
Wexford	9
Wicklow	15
Total	208

When this information was sent to registration authorities they were asked, if they were able to identify satisfactorily the persons concerned, to place an appropriate mark beside their names on the register of electors to be used in the polling station. In the unlikely event that these persons presented themselves at the polling station on polling day, the register would indicate that they were not entitled to receive a ballot paper for the European Parliament election and would not be permitted to vote.

The number of notifications received by my Department from other Member States in 2004 was 5,697. As the information received on that occasion was generally insufficient to identify citizens and/or relevant registration authorities, it was not transmitted to registration authorities.