Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 16 July 2025
Committee on Disability Matters
Progressing the Delivery of Disability Policy and Services: Discussion (Resumed)
2:00 am
Mr. Art O'Leary:
May I make just one brief point? Let me offer a cautionary note on postal voting, in particular. We have to take into account the electoral integrity here. The widespread opening of the vote to postal voting does entail security issues, and there are integrity issues. We would have to be very sure there are safeguards in place, and this is why we are doing the research on it. In principle, it sounds very simple to allow everybody to have a postal vote, perhaps in the way it was done in the UK at the time of the last election, such that people would become more engaged; however, Irish people have great confidence in the security of the electoral process, which is why they have such trust in electoral outcomes and results. Anything that might be open to greater electoral fraud, etc., might cast some doubt on that. Therefore, we have to tread very carefully.
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