Paul Bradford (Independent)
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I welcome the witnesses. We may be beating ourselves excessively in terms of electoral turnout and what it means. We have to concede that on 23 May, of the 51% or 52% of people in the Republic who cast their vote, at least 95% of those went to the polling booth to vote for the local election candidates. Let us be honest, the European ballot paper was secondary. That is the way it has always been. If people try to say otherwise I ask them to reflect back to 1984, which was the only year in which the Irish European Elections was held separate from local elections. In the 1980s the average Irish turnout would have been 70% plus but I think the turnout on European election day in 1984 was about 40%.

I do not think we should be shocked that the European election campaign did not particularly engage the voters. We have to be thankful that more than half the people voted. We must accept the fact that they actually voted in the local elections and while they were at the polling station they filled out the European election ballot paper. The challenge is how to enthuse people to take a more pro-active part from a candidate perspective, a party perspective and a voter perspective in the European election campaign. In that regard, Deputy Dara Murphy asked the witnesses to reflect on the electoral system. I look forward to their response to that issue. We are permanently debating the electoral system. The Oireachtas debates parliamentary party issues and the Constitutional Convention but we have not really progressed. If we want to be politically brave and innovative we could certainly use the European elections to look at an alternative electoral system. Nobody can claim that the current three constituencies of enormous size make any sense.

The nearest MEP for a person in County Wicklow, just a few miles out of south Dublin, geographically, is Deirdre Clune who is based on Cork city. Will the delegation comment on this aspect of the electoral system?
I also want to raise the issue of how candidates advertised themselves on their posters and so forth. Candidates should show the emblem of their European political affiliation rather than their home political party. For example, Deirdre Clune was on the ballot paper as “Deirdre Clune, Fine Gael” when she should have been “Deirdre Clune, European People’s Party”. This would bring home to the voter that the candidate is not simply representing a narrow, national political party but a broader political movement. What is the delegation’s view on this?
In my time in the Oireachtas, we have had only one weekend poll. Over a decade ago, we had two by-elections in south Tipperary within 12 months. The first by-election took place on a Friday which was won by Deputy Seamus Healy. The subsequent by-election 12 months later was won by the then Senator Tom Hayes, which was expected. As that poll was held on a Saturday, turnout increased substantially. I believe there is a better prospect of enhancing voter turnout on weekends. If we are serious about getting the electorate to vote, voting should be over a day and a half such as all day Saturday, half day Sunday or vice versa. We must be a little different in this regard and I would like to hear the delegation’s views on this.
We are getting a little bogged down with the victory of the eurosceptics in these elections. Looking at the local election results, one could say there was a politics-sceptic victory with the big block parties rejected. The eurosceptic results were not a huge sensation across Europe as economic conditions had impacted. We have seen all of this before.
It was obvious that the aspect of the European elections concerning the European Commission presidency did not take off here. No one went to a polling station to vote for a candidate because it would determine the choice for Commission President. Some years ago, former Taoiseach, John Bruton, proposed the Commission President should be directly elected by the citizens of Europe. This was also official policy of my former party, Fine Gael, as it was passed at a party Ard-Fheis. Should the lead candidates for the Commission presidency present themselves before the citizens of Europe?