Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to reaffirm Sinn Féin's support for reform of the electoral register and for the instigation of proactive voter registration drives to ensure all eligible voters are registered and to ensure accuracy of the electoral register. There has been a significant failure to ensure that the register is kept up to date and accurate. The absence of proactive registration drives and voter education initiatives has left many disenfranchised, particularly first-time voters, those who have moved into new housing developments and those living in the private rented sector. As elected representatives, we all regularly encounter significant numbers of people who are not registered and who in many cases are not fully aware of how to go about getting registered.

The question has been asked whether the process should be about making it easier or more difficult for people to use their franchise. We should be making it easier. The proposed changes to the supplementary register by which those seeking to be added to it would have to go to a Garda station and so on would not encourage people to go down that road but would discourage them. Neither would it encourage young people who feel dissatisfied with the system to add their names to the register. We have all come across cases where young people are not registered and that is a scandal. I have come across young people who were in tears because they wanted to use their vote for the first time but found they were not on the register.

During last night's debate the Minister attempted to downplay the problem of underfunding and did not appear to accept the extent to which lack of funds and-or personnel impedes the ability of local authorities to carry out their functions in regard to the electoral register. As the Minister stated last night, local authorities utilise a number of different approaches in compiling the register. There needs to be a standardised approach and local authority employees tasked with carrying out this work must be trained and upskilled.

There also must be increased emphasis on voter education. Voter education campaigns should place particular emphasis on communities with low levels of registration and low voter turnout at elections. It should not be left to groups like the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to try to provoke discussion and so on. There is a responsibility on political parties to engage with young people and people from disadvantaged areas to try to get them involved.

During last night's debate, Deputy Gilmore praised the rolling register in place in the North. Such praise demonstrates a naivety regarding the actual consequences for those in the Six Counties of the system introduced there. After the introduction of the new electoral regulations in Northern Ireland a number of years ago, which abolished household registration and introduced an annual registration requirement, much more than 200,000 people became disenfranchised. Those living in disadvantaged areas were particularly affected. After a long campaign waged by Sinn Féin and others, the British Government agreed to amend the legislation and our primary concern now is to ensure that the people who are on the current register are carried over on to the permanent register which is currently being legislated for and that adequate resources are provided for the electoral office and the electoral commission to do their jobs effectively.

Problems in terms of the accessibility of polling stations for those with disability or mobility problems persist. I am aware of a particular case in my constituency where elderly and infirm people had to be carried up steps so that they could vote as there was no ramp. I contacted the school which said it did not have the money to put a ramp in place. I also contacted the Sheriff's office but it did not have the money either. The reality is that at the next election some people will either have to crawl up steps or be carried up them. It is wrong that anybody should have to go through that to cast their vote. People are entitled to vote and it should be made easier for them, not more difficult.

I welcome the fact that this debate is taking place but we should seriously examine ways of making it easier for people to vote and encouraging people to vote. One way of doing that is by putting them on the register.

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