Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I will begin where my colleague, Deputy Cuffe, finished, by welcoming this Bill. However, it is a shame that a judgment was required against Britain in the European Court of Human Rights before the Government brought the law into line with best international civil rights practice. It is time the practice of denying prisoners their democratic right to vote in elections was ended and this Bill will attempt to ensure that is done. However, my party has a number of concerns regarding the implementation of the Bill's provisions.

The right to vote is one of the most fundamental tenets of democracy, yet this Bill as it currently stands will not make it easy for prisoners to exercise that right. Section 2(1)(c) states that, before a prisoner can be eligible to vote, he or she must provide proof of the ordinary address at which he or she resided before entering prison. Given that a considerable number of people who have no fixed abode or are homeless in every sense of the word are incarcerated in this State, is it necessary to demand proof of address before allowing them to exercise the right to vote? People can become homeless for numerous reasons, such as poverty, drug and alcohol misuse or a history of residential care. It is no coincidence that these are some of the factors which explain why somebody is put in jail because they are a direct result of the consistent failure of Government policies to support these sections of society.

Have the people in our prisons not been penalised enough by their incarceration? One is sent to prison as, not for, punishment. The proposals in this Bill could have the effect of making it more difficult for people to exercise their right to vote. The fact that a person may not have been in permanent accommodation should not be a deciding factor in allowing them to vote in prison and an experience of homelessness should not be a reason to deprive a prisoner of one of the most basic of civil rights.

Section 4 of the Bill provides that a prisoner who wishes to be included on the postal voters list must provide documentary evidence of eligibility to the registration authority within a period of not less than seven days. That period should be extended to at least 28 days because how can someone who is locked within prison walls for 24 hours per day submit the appropriate documents on time? Not only is the seven day timeframe wholly unreasonable, it is a ridiculous stipulation to impose on a prisoner. If this section is intended to verify the identity of a prisoner for the purpose of voting, are we then to presume that the State, which has incarcerated the prisoner in the first place, has doubts as to his or her identity? The criteria proposed in this section borders on the bizarre.

Given that the Bill proposes to provide a prisoner with the right to vote, it is reasonable to ask that he or she is facilitated in doing so. The Bill makes no provision for prisoners to be informed of their right to vote, to get advice on the procedure for registration on the postal voters list or for somebody to assist them in completing registration forms. That is an oversight, given the poor literacy levels among our prison population.

In 2005, 85% of committals were for non-violent offences and 39%, or 55% in the case of women, were for three months or less. Why should they be deprived of their right to vote? Is the denial of the right to vote to non-violent or petty offenders really proportionate?

This legislation was not introduced because the State suddenly decided to allow prisoners their rights but because the Government had to act. This is a civil rights issue and the Government has to acknowledge that the people who occupy our prisons are not lesser beings and that their opinions and right to be represented in this House are just as important as those of anybody else.

An issue has been brought to my attention by people in many parts of the State with regard to the register of electors. One instance concerns a person who ordinarily resides and is registered to vote in Milford, County Donegal, and works in Dublin, but is being refused registration by the local authority. I ask the Minister to investigate this issue because similar cases have arisen elsewhere.

People have told me that a significant number of local authority representatives have been calling to homes to ensure people are registered. That has made me a little more positive about the campaign, at least in my constituency. However, there are still unusual circumstances in some local authorities or a lack of clarity in some cases. Clarity must be brought to bear as quickly as possible to ensure that all people who are entitled to be included on the register of electors are included. We have a hard enough job getting people to vote as only approximately 50% do so. We must ensure that as many as possible——

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