Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht

Electoral Commission in Ireland: Discussion (Resumed)

2:20 pm

Mr. Peter McVitty:

I am from a very rural part of the country. When I was canvassing I met an 88 year old man who has lived in the same house all his life and has never left the area. He was taken off the register. He cycled to vote but when he arrived at the polling station he discovered he was not on the register. There should have been something in place for that man. The people at the polling station knew in their hearts and souls he had not come from somewhere else. I have heard a lot about regulations and rules from the people sitting behind me. We must have regulations but some of them are a bit over the top. When a child is born, he or she gets a PPS number, and when they reach 18 years of age, the State stops their children's allowance. It should be compulsory for everyone to vote. It would wake people up a bit if it were introduced.

The changes introduced by the boundary commission in Cavan mean 13,000 voters in west Cavan have been put into a constituency with Sligo and Leitrim, as were 8,000 voters in Donegal. Did whoever came up with that idea really put any thought into what they were doing? My municipal area has been divided in two. Part of it is in Sligo-Leitrim and the other is in Cavan-Monaghan. It is ridiculous. Who picks the people on the boundary committee who introduce these rules? I speak to people, and other councillors here deal with the same issues every day. People at the top do not think of those who understand what is happening at the bottom. The people who deal with this every day of the week should be listened to more.