Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. The recommendations they have made about elections are sensible, down to earth and things you would imagine would be done already. I only recently realised not all polling stations are accessible. I just assumed they would be because it is something very simple. In this day and age, it is outrageous that someone would have to look for permission to use a different one. That should be taken care of.

We are planning a meeting with the Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage on the subject of independent living, but this should be brought up with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage at that meeting, if it happens. Alternatively, to have one in this committee on this issue would be important as well.

When an election is called and a person is not on the register for any reason, whether he or she wants the postal vote or just to vote, it is very tight anyway. A general election is usually called three weeks out from the election, and to register or get somebody registered in that time is tight. It is welcome it is now online but I was looking at it last night and it is still necessary to apply for the postal vote. It still takes longer and I do not understand why. As Ms Costello said, if a person applied for a postal vote and provided the medical information that he or she had a disability, that person should not have to do it again. I know people who were caught out. They did that, assumed they would have a postal vote next time and ended up with no vote, because by the time they realised they did not have the postal vote, they could not go to the polling station and it meant they could not vote. It is outrageous there are people who cannot vote. I am alarmed by the figure of 400,000 in the EU who cannot vote. Mr. Clarke was diplomatic in that he spoke of the EU generally and did not specifically mention Ireland and our shortcomings. I am sure there are many areas where other countries are way ahead of us and maybe there are things we could and should learn from them.

Mr. Sinnott took a case because a person with a visual impairment could not be sure the person voting for them was voting as they wished. Will he explain how it works now? Does he choose the person who votes for him? Are other methods of voting put in place for people with visual impairments, such as braille or other tactile methods?