Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 October 2004
391 Mr. English asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the steps which have been taken to prevent persons, political parties, third parties, any other local authority or the Office of the Revenue Commissioners from deleting names from the register of electors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26685/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraIt is in the interests of the democratic process that the register of electors details as accurately as possible those persons who are entitled to vote at elections. Moreover, additions to and deletions from the register should be made in an open and fully transparent manner. Under electoral law, any person may claim to have a correction made to the draft register of electors following publication on 1 November. The claim must be made to the registration authority by 25 November and it may include, in particular, a claim to have the name of a person added or deleted. Such claims are ruled on, in public, by the appropriate county registrar and interested parties must be given notice of the time and location of the proposed hearing. An appeal may be made in the Circuit Court in relation to a decision of a county registrar.
In regard to removing electors from the register in the course of its preparation, authorities are required under a ministerial instruction issued under section 18 of the Electoral Act 1992 to send a notice to a person, whose name it is proposed to omit from the draft register, indicating that they have failed to establish that the person is still resident at the address and, unless evidence to the contrary is provided within ten days, his or her name will be removed.
After the final register comes into force, a person's name can only be removed if they have applied successfully for entry on the supplement to the register as a result of a change of residence to a new constituency or local electoral area. In such cases, the person's name on the register in respect of his or her previous address is deleted and he or she are registered at their new address.
