Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 3 Dec 1985

Vol. 362 No. 5

Private Members' Business. - Registration of Electors (Amendment) Regulations, 1985: Motion.

Minister for the Environment (Mr. Kavanagh)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann approves of the following regulations in draft:

Registration of Electors (Amendment) Regulations, 1985 a copy of which regulations was laid before Dáil Éireann on the 31st day of July, 1985.

These draft regulations are being brought before the house in accordance with section 7 of the Electoral Act, 1963, which provides that when 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.

These regulations make certain technical amendments to the regulations relating to the registration of electors. Section 7 of the 1963 Act authorises the Minister for the Environment to make regulations providing for such matters as the procedures to be followed in the registration of persons as electors and the format of the register. Regulations were made under that section entitled the Registration of Electors and Juries Acts (Specification of Dates) Regulations, 1963. These regulations were amended in 1977 to provide for the separate identification in the register of the new category of European assembly elector. The regulations which are the subject of the present motion will further amend the 1963 regulations to enable the provisions of the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 1985, which granted the Dáil vote to British citizens, to be given effect.

Under the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 1985, British citizens resident here are now entitled to be registered as Dáil electors. They are not, however, eligible to vote at Presidential elections or referenda and they must, therefore, be distinguished separately from Irish citizens in the register of electors. The Act provides for this by creating a new category called "Presidential elector" which is to be confined to Irish citizens. The draft regulations make the necessary arrangements for the separate identification in the register of the various categories of electors in the light of the new provisions.

As I said, this is a technical measure and the changes being made are designed to accommodate the new category of Presidential elector within the 1963 regulations; there are no changes of procedure. Accordingly, I do not intend to go through the draft regulations in detail. However, I would like to deal briefly with the new lettering system which will, under the regulations, be used in the register of electors.

The different categories of electors are identified in the register of electors by the placing of certain letters opposite their names. At the moment, the letters "LE" are used to identify European assembly electors. The letter "L" identifies local electors; these are persons from outside the European Community who can vote at local elections only. The letter "P" identifies postal voters. Irish citizens, who alone can vote at all elections and referenda, do not require a distinguishing letter. Under the draft regulations, the letters "L" and "P" will apply to the same categories as before and Irish citizens will not have a distinguishing letter. The letter "E" alone will identify European Assembly electors who are eligible to vote at both European Assembly and local elections, and the letter "D" will identify persons eligible to vote at Dáil elections as well as at European and local elections. This later category is, of course, confined to British citizens at this stage.

I do not think it is necessary to say any more about the regulations at this stage. There is, however, one important point I would like to make. The Electoral (Amendment) Act, 1985, confers on British citizens the right to be registered as Dáil electors. However, whether a person can vote or not at an election depends entirely on being correctly included in the register of electors. Registration authorities are at the moment publishing the draft of the 1986 register and it will be available for inspection at local authority offices, post offices, Garda stations and libraries. Claims for corrections to the register must be made before 15 January. An enormous amount of work goes into compiling the register every year and my Department, the registration authorities and public representatives make every effort to ensure that the register is accurate. However, the individual electors themselves should make sure that they are on the register. I would, therefore, urge not just British citizens but every individual to check that he or she is correctly registered in the draft register. I ask the House to support the motion.

Mr. Molloy

We agree with the regulations being proposed following the passing of the Electoral (Amendment) Bill, 1985. We had a number of debates here on the extension of the vote to British citizens, and these regulations are necessary to give effect to the decision of the House which implemented the decision of the people in a referendum. I do not see any great difficulty in operating the regulations proposed by the Minister. The Act provides that British citizens living here will be included in the register of electors and that they will have the identification mark "D" in front of their names signifying that they are qualified to vote in Dáil, European and local elections but not in Presidential elections.

The compiling of the draft register is of great interest to Members of the House. When the matter came before the Seanad the point was made about the time of the year when the register is available for amendment. I support the view expressed in the Seanad that the review occurs at a most inappropriate time. Some Senators pointed out that the review occurs when political parties were not active on the ground because of the Christmas and New Year holidays. Here and in other places I have suggested that it would improve matters if we were to get away from that time of year, and I ask the Minister to agree to change it.

At election times we get complaints about mistakes through which people are omitted from the register while others are included who should not be. The principal complaints come from people who go to polling stations to find that their names have been omitted. They are puzzled about why their names are omitted though they had voted in all elections since they reached voting age. Though they had not changed their addresses, they suddenly found themselves unable to vote.

The introduction of computerisation may reduce the number of mistakes because of continuance of the names on files rather than having to include each name separately every year. This may reduce the number of mistakes but there will still be some, and we here should try to arrange for the best conditions for reviewing the register. I suggest that the period be brought forward from January to November so that a proper review could be carried out in September, October and November. At present the review commences in December and must be concluded by 14 January. I agree that the review commences with the rate collectors from 15 September, but the draft register is not available until early December. The Christmas and New Year holiday period intervenes and all political parties will agree that it is not the most appropriate time to involve themselves in thorough checks of the register. Therefore I appeal to the Minister to amend the regulations so that the beginning of the review could be brought forward and the register confirmed on, say, 14 November instead of January.

We debated the issue of extending the vote to British citizens on two previous occasions and we had a referendum on that issue. There was unanimity here that votes should be extended to British citizens. I would hope that some other European countries would be interested in a reciprocal arrangement with us to avail of the provisions in that Act and to extend the vote to Irish citizens in some of the EC member countries and that they could vote in our general elections.

So far Britain is the only member of the Community which has extended that right to Irish citizens. They did so for historical reasons and we are now reciprocating by granting that right to British citizens living here. I trust that those British citizens who have settled in Ireland, who are as much part of our community as is any Irish person, will ensure that their names are on the register of electors and will avail of this right. We are talking about a very precious right but one that has not been extended to foreign citizens in many parts of the world. Despite our history we have decided to extend this right to British citizens living here. I hope all of those concerned will be fully aware of this and will take measures to ensure that their names are included in the register that is being compiled.

It would be helpful if the Minister arranged to have special advertisements placed in the media by way of informing those people that this right is now available to them and that it is for them to ensure that they avail of it and that their names are included on the register. As the Minister has said, they can check the register at any post office or Garda station or with any of the local authorities. The draft register should be available within a week or so. If a name is found not to be included, the person concerned has only to fill in a form in order to have the matter put right. I support the resolution as put by the Minister to give effect to regulations which will enable the provisions of the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 1985 to be implemented.

Minister for the Environment (Mr. Kavanagh)

I should like to make one or two comments arising out of Deputy Molloy's contribution but first I thank the Deputy for his contribution and for his continued support for the measure.

As I said at the outset, this is a technical measure but a very important one. It is the last step in a process which began several years ago to grant to British citizens resident here the right to vote in Dáil elections. Once these regulations are made there will be put in place the whole machinery that will enable those British citizens to be included in the 1986 register, the draft of which is being published just now.

I should like to stress, as many Deputies stressed also, that there is a need for everyone, but especially British citizens resident here, to check the draft register in order to ensure that their names are entered correctly.

Deputy Molloy mentioned the registration period and the period for compiling the register. He suggested that the register might be compiled a little earlier so that the checking of it does not clash with the Christmas period. This point was raised in the Seanad also and I am considering the matter. However, most elections take place in early summer and our objective is to ensure that an accurate register is available for that period. That is why April 15 is the operative date. However, the point should be looked at again.

Deputy Molloy referred, too, to the matter of the accuracy of the register. All of us who are candidates at election time are mystified and annoyed by the inaccuracies that become apparent at election time. Usually these are brought to our notice only on election day. The need to ensure a more accurate electoral register is of the utmost importance. My Department take every opportunity to stress this point to the registration authorities. This year we decided also to undertake a much more aggressive publicity campaign to encourage people to check the draft register. When people arrive at the polling stations and find that their names are not on the register they tend to blame some of us rather than to accept any blame for not having checked the draft register themselves. The problem is considered to be one for the public representatives or for the political parties, but it is the responsibility of the elector to ensure that his name is included on the register. This will be stressed in the publicity campaign which will begin shortly.

The campaign is being aimed specifically at those most likely to be omitted from the register. The view of most people in the House would be that people who have just reached the age of 18 are the most usual casualties in this respect. Other casualties are those who have changed address. We will be aiming at them, too, in our publicity campaign as well as at those people who will have the right to vote as a result of this legislation.

The only real measure the Department have of the accuracy of the register is the number of complaints reaching us in that regard. After the last local elections only a handful of such complaints reached us so I hope the present register has proved to be a more complete one than those of the past. It is an indication, too, that the process of publicity is beginning to pay off. It is in the interest of all of us to ensure that the register is as accurate as is possible though we are hardly ever likely to have 100 per cent accuracy. However, the publicity campaign we are embarking on should ensure that the register will be more accurate for future elections.

Question put and agreed to.