The Constitution provides that a referendum may be taken in certain circumstances upon certain legislative proposals, and has to be taken where a proposal is made to amend the Constitution. The taking of a referendum, according to the Constitution, is to be regulated by law, and this Bill contains the provisions for so regulating it.
The Bill is in three parts. The first is the preliminary or general part and, among other things, it defines the referenda which may be taken under the Constitution. The first to be defined is a constitutional referendum and the second is an ordinary referendum. The terms "constitutional referendum" and "ordinary referendum" are used throughout the Bill. It also provides, under Section 6, for the appointment of an officer to conduct the referendum. That officer is known as the referendum returning officer.
Part II of the Bill prescribes the procedure which is to be followed for taking a poll at a referendum. Generally, this procedure is similar to that for the holding of a general election. It provides for the appointment of a day upon which the referendum is to be held and, where a constitutional referendum is to be held, it provides that such referendum may be taken upon a day upon which a poll is held for a general election. In general, the procedure is the same as that which pertains at a general election, the exception being that whereas at a general election people have to vote for or against certain candidates, at a referendum they have to assent to or dissent from certain propositions. The form of the ballot paper is prescribed in the Second Schedule to the Bill, and the assent to or dissent from a proposition is to be indicated by a vote or by making a cross in the appropriate column.
Part III of the Bill provides for the procedure which is to be followed where the result of the referendum is challenged. When the referendum returning officer receives the returns from the several constituencies in the country and has considered them, analysed them and tabulated them, he issues what is known as a provisional certificate giving the provisional result of the referendum. That certificate does not become final and conclusive until after the lapse of an appointed time. If, within that period, the figures in the provisional certificate have not been challenged by petition or if, having been challenged by petition within the appointed time, the petition is not upheld by the High Court, then, on notification from the appropriate officer of the High Court, the provisional certificate becomes final and conclusive evidence of the result of the referendum.
Part III, as I have said, of the Bill prescribes the procedure to be followed where a petition is lodged challenging the figures given in the provisional certificate: in fact, challenging the result of the referendum as first declared by the Referendum Returning Officer. The procedure which has to be adopted for the trial of a petition challenging a referendum differs in some material ways from the existing procedure relating to a petition challenging the result of an election. In the case of an election, as the House of course is aware, the person primarily concerned in defending the petition is the person who has been declared elected. In the case of a referendum there is no person who can occupy that position; so that there is no person in most cases who can be appointed as a respondent to defend the petition. Now, where the petition is presented by a private individual the Bill makes provision that the Attorney-General shall defend the result of the referendum. Where, on the other hand, the Attorney-General presents the petition, as he may do under the Bill, operating, of course, in the public interest, we have a provision whereby, if necessary, the High Court may appoint some person to defend the referendum, and in that way we assimilate as closely as we can the procedure in regard to the trial of a referendum petition to that which obtains in the case of a petition challenging the returns at an election.
Schedule I contains the rules for taking the poll at a referendum, and, as may be seen, both in the relevant sections in Part I of the Bill and in these rules, the poll is to be taken everywhere throughout the country on the one day, and will be by secret ballot. Part II of the Bill provides that any member of Dáil Eireann may nominate, first of all, a personating agent to represent him at so many of the election centres or so many of the polling places as he may consider desirable, provided that in respect of each polling place he is only entitled to one representative. It also allows a member of Dáil Eireann to appoint two persons to represent him at the count of the votes of the referendum in whichever constituencies he elects to be represented at, and it also allows him to nominate himself as one of the persons to represent him at the count. The rules further provide that a re-count of all the votes or of an appropriate parcel of the votes may be asked for, and it is mandatory upon the returning officer to grant this re-count and to continue the re-count until the results of two successive counts of the same ballot papers, whether the whole or a packet thereof, agree or coincide. In the event of the results of two counts agreeing, then it will not be mandatory upon the returning officer to grant any further re-counts.
These are the principal provisions of the Bill. There is perhaps just one other point I may bring out in regard to it, and that is that every person who is entitled to vote at a Dáil election will be entitled to vote at this election, provided that he or she has attained the age of 21 years, and the Bill contains provisions which will permit the returning officer to put questions, to any person who applies for a vote, to elicit the information that, in fact, he or she has attained the age of 21 years.