Results 161-180 of 1,204 for speaker:Mary Fitzpatrick

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: The local authorities?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: They have done none.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Have any of them done it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: It sounds like the Department has done a lot of work in this space. Would it be possible to give us a report on the extent of the work, the funding provided, the local authorities that have engaged and what they have actually done? I am going to run out of time. My other question was about officers in polling stations.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: What qualifications do they need?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I am referring to the people who are recruited to man polling stations.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Do they need to be able to read or write?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: It is there. It is public information that the people who man our polling stations have no qualifications. They do not even need to be able to speak English or Irish. That is the reality. We can do a post-electoral review if we want but let us be honest with the public. That is the context within which our ballot boxes and democracy operate. It is a serious red flag. We need to do...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: That is a valid point. I agree with Mr. Ryan. Traditionally, that is the case but we are at full employment. There is no sector that is not struggling to recruit. Every profession is struggling, even good professions with good pensionable jobs. One must ask how important our democracy is and how important the job we ask them to do is. We ask them to give a minimum of 16 hours, deal with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: There are 85 presiding officers, all of whom are drawn from the public service and are educated, qualified people with plenty of experience. Within each polling station, there are multiple tables and officers. Traditionally, political parties put people in - this tradition ended quite a long time ago - which meant there was some level of independent, or quasi-independent observation of what...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I agree completely with the Cathaoirleach. I urge the Electoral Commission to be enthusiastic and ambitious and to sort out the issue of posters, before the next election if possible. It is environmentally bad. It has a distorting effect. I do not think we should ban them entirely. They do, of course, have a value. A reasonable limit should be set, though, and a level playing field...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: We should aim for a level playing field and we should not leave this to Tidy Towns' groups to undertake.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: How many members are there?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: If there are seven members of the commission, then I think, with the best will in the world, if they were to get to five polling stations, this would still not be a whole lot of observation. I do not think this is sufficient.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: There must be 30 polling stations alone in the constituency of Dublin Central. This is only one constituency, and there are 49 of them. This approach is wholly insufficient. To be relying then on anecdotal, unqualified submissions from the public is also wholly inadequate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: That will help.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Okay. Will the commission, from this perspective, give consideration to taking any action in terms of establishing a minimum qualification for people working in polling stations and for the instructions and training to be provided to them, or is this something the committee needs to write to the commission and request? Is that something that we as a committee need to write to the commission...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Mr. Ryan is confirming what I know. The reality is there are no qualifying criteria. When it comes to actually operating the polling stations and ensuring the validity of what is taking place in the ballot box, there could be people who cannot communicate verbally or in any way with others. It is entirely on them to take action to ensure there is no voter impersonation and to engage a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Returning to the register of electors, I was struck by Mr. O’Leary’s point that our population is growing at two TDs a year. Some 150,000 of 3 million or so is roughly 5% variation to the register of electors. Is the 5% by which it has varied additions, deletions or changes?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Local and European Elections 2024 and Subsequent General Election: Discussion (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Fitzpatrick: So that is after the election. There are two categories of registers, outside of Dublin and in Dublin. Of the 150,000 or so changes, how do they split between those two? Are the majority Dublin or outside Dublin? It is fine if Ms Woods does not know that.