Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy O’Callaghan tabled two very important amendments. I obviously support the thrust of them. We absolutely have to enable more people with disabilities and those who have difficulty accessing polling stations as they are currently constituted. We need to make it easier and more accessible for people to vote and participate in the democratic process.

Equally, Deputy O’Callaghan's points on the alphabetical order and the presentation of candidates merit further consideration. I do not think we have ever had an Aaron Aardvark on an Irish ballot paper. I hope things do not get that bad that somebody might decide that they want to change their name by deed poll and place themselves higher up the ballot paper by doing so. Deputy O’Callaghan referenced very compelling research. I hope that is something the Minister can take on board and the commission can take a look at. Just because it is always how we did things does not mean we necessarily have to continue to do that and present the ballot paper in the way that it is currently presented and always has been.

Some of the elements of amendment No. 48 have been discussed to a degree in relation to earlier amendments, especially around the potential lowering of the voting age and the extension of the franchise to others who cannot participate at this point in time in general elections and so on. I want to limit my remarks to subsections (a) and (b), which relate to the taking of opinion polls and the issue to do with the framework for broadcast election debates. They are related in a way because both the taking and publication of opinion polls during an election period and the presentation of and manner in which a broadcast election debate is done have the potential to change the outcome of an election. In the context of broadcast election debates, for example, I do not refer simply to the performance of the individuals who are actually participating, but also to how they are selected. I cannot recall a time in the past 20 or 30 years where there has not been a High Court challenge taken by somebody who felt they should have been included in an election debate and were not. Even the taking of a case or the idea that somebody might be excluded - even though it may be the case that they have a certain amount of Dáil representation or are performing well in opinion polls and may make a challenge on that basis - feeds into the narrative of an election and who has been excluded and who has been included. That can create some momentum behind a candidate or a party.

It would be a good day’s work for the commission when it meets - we are loading more work on it, but it is important because of the influence of opinion polls and broadcast debates during an election campaign on the outcome of the election - if it could undertake research on how that works or use research available elsewhere to inform the development of a framework. Perhaps it could agree with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland about how election debates could be organised in a fair and impartial manner. Perhaps some form of regulatory standards would be imposed on opinion polling companies in terms of how they take opinion polls and how they and the media present those opinion polls, especially during an election campaign because it has an impact on the outcome. At least that is what we believe to be the case, though it may not be. There may very well be evidence to suggest the contrary. However, I am not aware of any evidence that is there, at least in an Irish context, to inform this. Given the substantial research function that the commission will have, this is an important piece of work that the commission should and could undertake.

On opinion polls, I do not believe there are any standards imposed on opinion poll companies outside of the industry standards that they impose on themselves. Opinion polls in Ireland are carried out to a very robust and high degree and high standard. However, especially in the context of elections themselves, we need to look at this idea of best practice standards in the taking of opinion polls in an election period. I would be interested to hear the Minister’s view on that.