It will be within the memory of this Dáil that not very long ago they decided to appoint a Committee to deal with the question of corrupt practices at elections, in order that these corrupt practices might be brought to an end, and at the time one or two stated in the course of that debate, if the Dáil will recall it, that it was right that some essential principle should be adopted, and I am in agreement that some essential principle should be adopted without any reference to a Committee, which is different to a Commission. A Commission advises the Dáil as to general principles, and a Committee carries out general principles committed to it by the. Dáil or by the Legislature in question, and there is an important principle that I raised on that occasion that I would desire this Dáil to give its confirmation to, before the Committee should sit. There was, I believe I am right in saying, a general measure of consent for the principle to which I refer, the principle being that offences such as were complained of should be treated as criminal offences, and that criminal penalties should be attached to them. It is well known that grave evils call for drastic remedies. The offences such as we are referring to, and which are known as corrupt practices at elections, have become very grave evils in this country.
It is not my purpose to go into that matter now, as it was once before very fully debated and very fully discussed. I desire quite briefly to run through the main details, the main headings of the Clauses, that are before the Dáil now. If this were referred by the Dáil to the Committee it would be assumed by the Committee in giving them consideration, that it was bound to the essential principles that were debated, and it would be for the Committee to change the wording or change the details, or change the application or widen the application, as it thought fit, while never-the less adhering to the central principle, that all these Clauses tend to convey. In drafting out these Clauses, I have run through all the various items from the very beginning of an election to the end, beginning at registration, and continuing right through to the vexed question of personation. In the first of these Clauses, if Deputies will turn to it, there is a statement made, "it is provided that any person, who of his own application is registered, or who of his own application attempts to be registered more than once, as an elector entitled to vote at a general election, or who of his own application is or attempts to be registered without being duly qualified to be so registered, shall be liable on conviction to a penalty of £25." It is provided for in the rest of that Article, if a person having the two possibilities, desires to be registered in respect of one and not the other, he may be reminded of that fact, and there is no penalty attaching because the choice is given to him. The second Clause deals with this more important matter and one that is familiar to the Members of this Dáil: It says "Any person who causes or attempts to cause another person to be registered more than once as an elector shall be liable on conviction to a penalty of £50." The penalty in this case has been doubled because the evil itself is very much greater. One single person might in good faith apply to be registered more than once, but it is extremely unlikely that one person is going to apply on behalf of a large number of persons, but it did occur in the Constituency I represent. We know that at the last election, there were I think 680 persons who not merely did not exist, but who had never existed, who had been entered and registered by a certain political organization, and I believe it is perfectly true that of these 680 persons, who never even had life over 500 of them voted.
