asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether his attention has been called to a statement that persons who are registered in the current University register of electors should take steps to transfer their representation to the local constituency registers, in anticipation of the passing of the Constitution (Amendment No. 23) Bill, and whether the statement is correct.
Private Notice Question. - University Electors.
There appears to be some misapprehension as to the position of University electors if and when the Constitution (Amendment No. 23) Bill becomes law.
Amendments in the Constitution such as this are declaratory in form and do not contain the changes in statute law which are necessary to give effect to the amendment. Accordingly, the passing into law of this Bill will automatically require the passing or a Bill to make consequential amendments in the Electoral Acts, and also a transitory provision.
The transitory provision which will be submitted to the House will be found to obviate the necessity on the part of University electors to take any steps to transfer their registration from the University constituency to the local constituency. This Bill to amend the Constitution comes into operation immediately upon the dissolution of the Oireachtas occurring after the passing of the Act, and if any University Deputy ceased to be a Deputy before the dissolution a by-election might be held. It will, therefore, be necessary to maintain the University registers for the purposes of a potential by-election. There is a constitutional limit of time within which a general election must be held, but no fixed date as in the case of local government elections, and any statutory provisions with respect to elections to Dáil Eireann must of necessity be framed on the assumption that an election may be held at any time during the statutory period fixed in accordance with the Constitution.
So far as the registers in force up to 31st May, 1937, are concerned, it will not be practicable to note those persons who are University electors and who will have a local constituency claim to vote at a general election, and the best solution appears to be to arrange to have the University lists extracted and make special provision for voting. On and after the 1st June, 1937, electors who are University electors can be specially noted in the local registers so that they cannot vote in respect of that entry at a by-election which may happen before the general election, but will be able to vote at a polling booth in the ordinary way at the next general election and at any subsequent by-election.
It will be a difficult task to correlate the University register with the local registers, as I understand that the University registration officers are not always informed of the changes in residence of University electors. It would materially assist everyone who is in any way concerned with the work of keeping these registers concurrent for an indefinite period, if every University elector would report to the University registration officer his or her address on the 15th November, 1935, and also his or her address on the 15th November next if he has changed his residence.
Apparently, however, the best way to safeguard votes on the University register, in case of transfer to the local register, is that persons who have been on the University register in the past would see, when the register is being made up now, that their names are put upon the new register—that is, the register that is now being made up and that will come into force on 1st June?
No. I do not think that is correct. I think the simplest and best way would be to see that their names are on the University register, and, when the University register is completed, after this present register that is being made is completed—the one that will come into operation on 1st June—the Department of Local Government, with the various registration officers, will endeavour to secure that every person who is on the University register will be transferred to their proper place on the general register for the register that is now being prepared.
I take it that what the Minister is now doing is that he is giving an undertaking to University graduates that, if they report their present address to the University registrar, he will see that after the 1st June next, even though they do not appear upon the local register, they will not be precluded from voting at a general election after the 1st June next?
Every effort will be made by the Department, in consultation and in co-operation with the local registration officers, to see that every University graduate registered on the University register will have his name transferred to its proper place in the local register for the new register that will come into operation on the 1st June, 1937.
Would the Minister say if there is a date this month or next month before which that notification is to take place?
No.
The Minister, I think, will admit that his statement is about as clear as mud. The position as we can understand it is this: until a general election takes place this University register must be maintained. Therefore, it cannot go out of existence unless and until a general election takes place. It remains until that moment.
That is right.
The general election takes place, say, on the 30th June, 1937. The University register must be in operation on the 29th June, and it goes out of operation on the 30th June.
Will University voters not be disfranchised if a general election takes place within the next six months? What register will they be on then? They will have no vote in the University. Will they be on the local register? The Minister is aware that the local register that will be officially in use on and after the 1st June is already compiled.
It is in process of compilation.
As a matter of fact, it is already compiled.
Would the Minister say if there will be no general election until all this business is finished?
There will not.
Are University voters to register now? If they are not, and a general election takes place between this and June, 1937, before the new register is compiled and officially published, will they have any vote at all?
I think the statements that I read and made would be understandable by the ordinary intelligence, but I cannot undertake to make them understandable to the drab mediocrity that Deputy McGilligan told us the other night is a common thing in those who are elected for ordinary constituencies. Deputy Cosgrave can take that to himself if he thinks it fits. Those who are on the University register now will be kept on, I presume, if they so wish by the University registrars in both cases. If they are marked as University voters they will be on that register, and will have no power to vote until this law comes into operation.
What law?
The law that we are in the process of passing.
It has not arrived yet.
It has not, but the Dáil yesterday passed Constitution (Amendment No. 23) Bill. I am taking it that that measure will be passed into law. When that comes into operation the Department of Local Government, with the co-operation and assistance of all the registrars responsible for the compilation of the local registers, will do everything possible to ensure that those who are on the University registers will have their names transferred and put into the new register that will come into operation in June, 1937.
Would the Minister, who has been so lucid, explain what he means by the phrase "when that comes into operation?" I take it that what he means is "when that comes into law." It will not come into operation until a general election takes place. Presumably, what he means is that when the Bill comes into law.
Now we have the position made as clear as black mud.
The Minister wants to introduce legislation to deal with this, but he has not got the legislation yet. He hopes that, by the time the legislation is introduced, this thing will be all right. The Minister knows well that this is a nice mess that he has got us into. He had to get Deputy Mrs. Concannon, a University representative, to ask a question about it so as to try and make the case that he knows something about it. Is not that the whole sum and substance of it?
I got the question asked in order to clear up the mess that the Deputy's official organ made the day before yesterday about it —probably inspired by himself.
There is just one further point that I would like to have cleared up.
Do not ask him too many questions.
Better not.
I take it that the University register that will come into operation after the 1st June next is now being made up?
That is so.
Is there a date fixed before which claims to appear on that register must be made in respect of people who are entitled to be on that register but who are not on the University register at the moment?
The ordinary date for making claims.
Take the case of the University voter who falls between the stools of the two registers, the voter who does not get his name either on the University register that is now being made up, or on the local register. He will have no chance of voting after the 1st June in case a general election takes place.
But he should be on the University register.
So that persons who are entitled to be on the University register due now, whether they are on it or not, should make a claim before the 26th or the 29th February. Is that so?
Everyone who is entitled to be on the register that is now being circulated can make a claim in the ordinary way if, on looking through it, he finds that his name is not on it.
Mr. Belton rose.
There must not be a general debate on this question.
I merely want to point out that the position then will be that if there is a dissolution after this voter gets on the University register, a dissolution of the Dáil, that register is no good to him.
Why not?
Because there will be no University candidate at the general election that will follow that dissolution. When a dissolution takes place, the Constitution provides automatically the date for nomination, the date of election and the date of reassembly of the Dáil. Does the Minister think he will be able, even with all the machinery at his disposal, to make up a new register for an election immediately after a dissolution?
There will be plenty of time to make it up.
We can then take it when there is any move made to transfer the University voters to the ordinary list that a general election is very near.
You have a guarantee for another two years.