Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 12, to delete line 8 and substitute the following: “(k) section 25C;

(l) section 85.”.

I will address Government amendments Nos. 2, 33, 34, 62 to 64, inclusive, 71 to 73, inclusive, 81 and 104 to 109, inclusive, which have been grouped as they all relate to provisions for island voting. Amendment No. 2 amends section 3 of the Bill, concerning repeals, to include the repeal of section 85 of the Electoral Act 1992 that provides for early island voting. The repeal of section 85 of the Electoral Act 1992 will remove provisions that currently allow returning officers to take the poll on islands in Dáil elections, presidential elections and referendums up to five days before the polling day appointed by the Minister, if in the opinion of the returning officer it may be impracticable, owing to stress of weather or transport difficulties, to either take the poll on the polling day appointed by the Minister or to deliver the ballot boxes to the count centre by 9 a.m. on the following day, if the poll goes ahead on polling day.

Amendments Nos. 104 to 109, inclusive, insert a new Part 7 into the Bill, which amends the Electoral Act 1992, the Presidential Elections Act 1993, the Referendum Act 1994, the Local Elections Regulations 1995, the Local Government Act 2001 and the European Parliament Elections Act 1997, to provide for same-day island voting at elections and referendums in Ireland. These amendments will ensure that polling at elections and referendums on the islands will take place on the same day as the rest of the country.

In line the repeal of section 85 of the Electoral Act 1992 under amendment No. 2, amendment No. 107 will amend Article 49 of the Local Elections Regulations 1995 and amendment No. 109 will amend rule 48 of the Second Schedule to the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 to remove the provisions that allow for advance island voting at local and European elections and the provisions that prohibit an alteration to the notice of poll.

Amendments Nos. 104 to 109, inclusive, will insert new provisions into the Electoral Acts to provide the Minister with the power to make an order to shorten polling hours on an island for an election or referendum where it would be unnecessary or impracticable to have full polling hours due to local circumstances and taking account of the advice of the returning officer. Such an order must be made no later than seven days before polling day and the amended polling period must not be less than four hours. The returning officer would be required to give public notice in the polling district of the times and date of the poll and as specified in legislation, orders would be published in Iris Oifigiúil. The local circumstances to be considered include the size of the electorate on the island, distance between a polling station on an island and the count centre, advance weather forecasts or foreseen transport difficulties.

These new order-making provisions would be inserted as new subsections (1A) to (1D) in section 96 of the Electoral Act 1992; new subsections (2) to (6) in section 7 of the Presidential Act 1993; new subsections (2) to (6) in section 13 of the Referendum Act 1994; new subsections (2A) to (2C) in section 26 of the Local Government Act 2001; and as new subsections (1A) to (1C) in section 10 of the European Parliament Elections Act 1997. Amendments Nos. 104 to 109, inclusive, will also amend the existing provisions of section 86 of the Electoral Act 1992, Article 49 of the Local Elections Regulations 1995, and rule 48 of the Second Schedule to the European Parliament Elections Act 1997. These provisions currently allow for polling hours on islands to be reduced on polling day itself where weather or transport difficulties affect the commencement of the poll or the timely delivery of ballot boxes to the count centre. The amendments would clarify that these are emergency provisions to be used only in the event of unforeseen weather or transport difficulties on polling day itself.

In addition, amendments Nos. 104 to 109, inclusive, will amend the preliminary procedures for the counting of votes in section 114 of the Electoral Act 1992, Article 76 of the Local Elections Regulations 1995 and rule 75 of the Second Schedule to the European Parliament Elections Act 1997.

These amendments would allow returning officers, in the event of weather or transport difficulties at an election or referendum that would give rise to the late arrival of ballot boxes from a polling station on an island, to proceed with the opening of ballot boxes and the verification of ballot paper accounts for each box that has been received. These tasks typically take a number of hours to complete and the proposed amendments would allow these tasks to be commenced pending the late arrival of ballot boxes from a polling station on an island.

The amendments will also delete references in the Electoral Act 1992, the Presidential Act 1993 and the Referendum Act 1994 to section 85 of the Electoral Act 1992, which will be repealed under amendment No. 2.

Finally, I propose to move amendments Nos. 33, 34, 62 to 64, inclusive, 71 to 73, inclusive, and 81, which are technical drafting amendments recommended by the Office of the Attorney General to clarify that these references in the Bill are referring to polling day order provisions under section 96(1) of the Electoral Act 1992, section 10(1) of the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 and section 26(2) of the Local Government Act 2001, and not an order to shorten the poll on an island.

I seek the support of the committee for these amendments. I thank the Chair.