Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 6, after line 44, to insert the following:

“Ballot papers

4. (1) The Fourth Schedule to the Electoral Act 1992 is amended by substituting for the form of a ballot paper (within the meaning of that Act) specified in Part II of that Schedule (as modified by Regulation 7 of the Electoral Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 156 of 2007)) the form specified in the Schedule.(2) Regulation 7 of, and the Fifth Schedule to, the Electoral Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 156 of 2006) are revoked.”.

I will address the error to which the Vice Chairman has referred in my speaking notes. Government amendment No. 1 provides for a revised form of ballot paper to be used at Dáil elections. This amendment will have the effect of replacing the current format of the ballot paper for Dáil elections that is specified in the Electoral Regulations 2007. Regulation 5 and the Fifth Schedule to those regulations will be revoked. Part 2 of the Fourth Schedule to the Electoral Act 1992 will be replaced by the Schedule to this Bill. I take this opportunity to inform the committee that the reference to the Electoral Regulations 2007 in section 4(2) in the amendment, as published, is incorrect. It should read "S.I. No 156 of 2007", not 2006. This will be corrected in the next publication of the Bill.

Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 are technical in nature to facilitate the insertion of the new section 4 in the Bill. As I said during the debate on Second Stage, the Minister committed last April to a review of the ballot paper for Dáil elections. At that time Deputy Stanton raised concerns about voters misplacing their marks on the ballot paper.

At present, political party emblems are placed along the left-hand side of the ballot paper. In the case of non-party candidates the space for the emblem is required to be left blank. It is reported that some voters express their voting preferences by placing their marks in these boxes in the left-hand column. While it is understood that such marks may not necessarily make a ballot paper invalid we are of the view that any potential confusion should be eliminated where possible.

In the review of the Dáil election ballot paper officials in the Department also consulted with the National Adult Literacy Association and with the National Council for the Blind. Both of these organisations assisted my Department in producing a revised form of ballot paper for use at the referendums last May. The revised form of the ballot paper should help voters to avoid misplacing voting preferences and it should be more user-friendly for voters with visual and literacy difficulties.

The main change proposed is to move the space for including the emblem of a political party from the left-hand side of the ballot paper to a new location to the left-hand side of the photograph, and that can be seen on the ballot paper. There will therefore be no boxes along the left-hand side of the ballot paper. The boxes for marking will remain on the right-hand side of the ballot paper. This should help voters avoid misplacing voting preferences as there is only one box that can be marked for each candidate after voters have read across, from left to right, all of the information on each candidate.

The National Adult Literacy Association has confirmed the view that people read and work naturally from left to right so voters should start on the left reading the candidate details, then see the emblem and photograph, if provided, and then mark their preferences all on the right. The boxes in which voters indicate their preferences will be "floating boxes" in order to draw the eye of the voter to the correct place for marking the ballot paper. As members can note from the Schedule set out in amendment No. 4, these boxes will be emphasised with bold print on the borders.

With respect to other changes, the new format provides for two more small changes in the format. On the recommendation of the National Council for the Blind, the use of italics in the instructions on the front of the ballot paper will cease and the parentheses around the name and occupation of the candidate will be removed. The opportunity is also being taken to provide for both Irish and English to be used on the back of the ballot paper and the back of the counterfoil.