Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

It could be difficult for people to get to their polling station by 9 p.m. I urge that polling stations would remain open, perhaps until 11 p.m., to facilitate people to cast their ballots. If the election is on 31 May, some students would not be able to travel to vote on the Thursday if they have exams on Friday also, which is very much disenfranchising them.

I support what Senator O'Rourke said in urging the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party to oppose Thursday voting. I hope her party leader, the Taoiseach, will listen to her. I reiterate what Deputy O'Dowd said about the hypocrisy of the Taoiseach in justifying holding the referendum on the Nice treaty on a weekend yet not saying the general election is entitled to the same degree of importance.

To a degree, the statistics speak for themselves. The turnout in 1999 was just over 50% when the local and European elections were held on a Thursday.

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