Mr. Art O'Leary:

Míle buíochas, a Chathaoirligh. There is a lot there. Thank you for your kind words. The support of the Oireachtas is very important for us in the way we do our work.

On a couple of the points raised, training for returning officers is currently organised by the Custom House, that is, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in association with the local authorities generally. The running and administration of elections is still a matter for Government.

Returning officers can authorise people with a disability to vote at different polling stations if it is accessible but they have to know who they are, of course, and that can be difficult as well. We will look at that issue in greater detail to make sure that that is streamlined to the greatest extent possible.

The issue of braille is interesting. There was a court case taken a number of years ago by Robert Sinnott which had a great impact because there are now braille ballot papers. There is still a difficulty because while the ballot paper tends to be quite short in referendums and if it is in braille one can do it in a polling booth, for a local election or some of the Dáil elections, the ballot paper in braille is hard plastic and so it is hard to get it. You probably need a big table to be able to do it properly and that is certainly not available at the moment. Mr. Sinnott is working with a working group in the Custom House at the moment to try to see if we can do something there. It is a case that we are following with great interest.

The number of people who used the braille ballot papers is very small. It was just 58 in the 2020 elections, but that is 58 people who we helped vote properly. If we collected an extra 58 every time that we did one of our electoral events, we would make life easier for people. It is all about making a difference.

I was pleased to hear Deputy Ellis speak about the example of the woman who was absolutely determined to vote. This is so important. We all love to hear that. We want everybody to have fire in their belly about the electoral process and to engage and we should make it as easy as possible for them.