This Bill is introduced because of an incident in the last general election on 18 February, polling day. Seemingly a Mr. O'Connor, a solicitor, went into a polling booth in Malahide accompanied by his daughter and requested a ballot paper which he duly received. His daughter also requested a ballot paper which she duly received. They went into a screened off place with the ballot papers, spent some few minutes there and, in my opinion, voted in that booth. He then walked to the box with the ballot paper, and placed it in the box. If he did not place the ballot paper in the box, he placed some other piece of paper in the box. We are not talking about somebody who did not understand the procedure. Let us keep in mind that this man is a solicitor, an election agent for a particular candidate.
He then left that polling booth and went to Kinsealy. His daughter accompanied him again. He walked into the polling booth, went up to the presiding officer, produced a card which is sent out to each individual elector and, in return for the card, he received a ballot paper. If he did not produce a card he gave a number, or a name and an address. His daughter did likewise. Again they proceeded behind the screen, spent some time there, came out and placed a piece of paper — in my opinion a ballot paper — in the box. Ultimately there was a court case held, I think on 20 April. District Justice Kearney presided at the court and his decision was: "I am ruling that the prosecution has not proven, and could not prove, that the defendants or any defendants committed this offence of double voting".
Again let us keep in mind that we are talking about a solicitor, an individual who was an election agent for a particular candidate during the campaign. I have no doubt that man knew what he was doing. Admittedly, it would be impossible to trace the vote. Some years ago the number on the register was put on the ballot paper. The secrecy of that was questioned in the High Court and it was held to be against the Constitution. For that reason there is no way to trace that vote. Even if we went through the total number of votes cast — in the region of 70,000 or 80,000 or whatever the figure was — it would be utterly impossible to find out where these two ballot papers went to.
Naturally I do not want to be critical of any judge. I do not know this man at all. The question about the daughter is more serious. Was she encouraged by her father to personate in this election or in any other election, or did she do it on her own accord? If she did it on her own accord it is peculiar that she did not arrive at the polling booth on her own. She arrived at both polling booths with her father and did exactly as he did. There could be some doubt about her because, if she was influenced by her father, she could have gone into the second polling booth and not cast a vote. Perhaps she went into the first polling booth and did not cast a vote, and cast her vote in the second polling booth. Certainly there could be some doubt about her guilt, but there is no doubt in the world that her father personated. As I said he is a solicitor, an election agent for a candidate, and he knew what he was doing. How many more people did he encourage to do this type of thing? I do not know, but it sounds very peculiar.
I am not a legal man. I know nothing about the legal end of this but I read in the papers that Mr. O'Connor and his daughter were tried and acquitted, and even the Director of Public Prosecutions cannot bring on another case. This is the situation. The Minister has produced this Bill, a very short Bill, a Bill to deal with this problem. From now on if a person demands a ballot paper in Kinsealy and goes to Malahide and demands another ballot paper, he is committing an offence according to the Bill.
This offence has been committed before. I can quote a number of cases. I can quote the case in my own constituency of a presiding officer in a local election. He voted in three names and this was proved beyond any doubt in the court — one was in America, another in hospital and the third was dead. This man was acquitted in the court. Six months later I went into the Department of Agriculture, and the same man had an appointment in that Department. Was that in recognition of what he had done for the party he was supporting? This is far more serious than people think and there is nothing in this Bill to stop this. We have this very serious situation. A number of district justices apply the Probation Act. They can do that because it is within their rights. When other district justices meet this problem they sentence them for a period of not less than two months and not more than 12 months, and fine them £100. I do not think it is unreasonable to ask the Minister or his draftsmen to put into this Bill a direction to these district justices telling them what to do in this situation: that the law says that any person who collects two ballot papers, in the one booth or in different booths, commits an offence of personating, and is liable to be sentenced to six months in jail, one month in jail, fined £100 or whatever the decision may be. There are many other points which should have been brought into this Bill.
In my honest opinion a polling card is a licence to personate. Everybody knows that in smaller constituencies there are people who go around collecting polling cards. Maybe they are not advised by political parties but they do it. If somebody is dead or away from home or not available to vote for some reason, these people go to the polling booth, produce this polling card, collect the ballot paper, walk in and vote. That is bad enough, but they probably have collected one polling card in every street and voted in other polling booths. There is nothing in this Bill to prevent that.
Reports from the Garda superintendents, sergeants and garda meetings, show that there is no point in the gardaí preparing cases and bringing the culprits to court when the justices are letting them off. That has happened very often in this type of case. Unless the Minister remedies the situation it will continue. The Minister must add a lot more to this Bill before it could be accepted by this House.