Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I compliment the people who took the case that led to this legislation coming before the House. It takes a great deal of courage to take a case all the way to the Supreme Court. Had they not done so, the flaw would have remained in the primary legislation. The focus of attention regarding the nomination of Independent candidates is on Dáil elections but the relevant provisions were seen at their most ridiculous prior to local elections. When I ran for Kildare County Council, a date was nominated when candidates would be received with their assentors. Ten independent candidates were running and each of us brought 30 people with us. We spent three or four hours standing in a queue similar to what happens in newly formed democracies where citizens are enthusiastic about voting and will queue for days or walk long distances to the polls. It was absolutely ridiculous.

I was contesting seats on both a town council and the county council and I had to go through the process twice. I had to ask people to give up their time, which was extremely unfair. That is a practical example of how ridiculous was this section. My mother was an assentor and she brought her passport, as it was only the document she had that contained a photograph. Many elderly people do not have documents with photographic identification and I was conscious of people being excluded because of such procedures and I may table an amendment to address this aspect.

In 2002, the largest number ever of Independent Deputies was elected to the House and I was an addition in 2005. Independents have been party to 13 different Governments in the history of the State and they have been in Government more often than the Labour Party. They have not played an inconsiderable part even in Government. Ireland is different in that more Independent politicians are elected than in other countries. The Minister stated that candidates in the first elections in the State had to pay a deposit of £100 but there was an equality to that because every candidate had to do so. However, nowadays, such deposits are only paid by Independent candidates.

I strongly agree with Deputy Finian McGrath's comments on putting the title "Independent" beside the names of candidates on the ballot paper. We are referred to in the media and in the House as Independents. We put the title on our election material and we are independent of political parties. There is no reason we cannot properly define ourselves on a ballot paper because people understand us to be Independents. It is offensive that we are not allowed to describe ourselves in that fashion.

I refer to the issue of the weight of the vote, which has been mentioned by previous speakers. A census of population was conducted last year. However, the votes cast in the upcoming election will not be equal votes. This will not be an election in a democracy in a traditional sense where the votes are seen as equal because we will not use the census of population figures from the preliminary census. That is wrong. There is a less than 1% difference between the preliminary and final figures. We are either serious about the Constitution or not where it states there should be equality of votes and constituencies should not exceed 30,000 electors. That is a fatal mistake and I hope the public will understand this is being foisted on us. I ask the Minister to publish the advice he was given by the Attorney General on that issue because I believe it is flawed.

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