Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Nobody comes into the House more often than the Minister to pull people up on all types of dates, phrases, commas and so on. He is the Minister responsible for electoral matters. His Government could have brought legislation before the House anytime in the past ten years to provide for an independent electoral commission. It is not a new idea but one that has been kicked around the Houses for some time. The Labour Party advocated it in several debates on electoral legislation but it was never taken up. On the eve of a general election and having been ten years in office, it is a bit late in the day for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to outline the changes he would like to see made to our electoral legislation and procedures when none of them have ever appeared in electoral legislation introduced by the Government.

The Fine Gael Party's Bill deals with the days on which elections should take place. A designated polling day is required. I have been struck by the number of constituents who have informed me that the Taoiseach's dithering on calling the date for the general election is causing them considerable difficulty and inconvenience. These are people who take their votes seriously and wish to participate in our democracy. Many of them wish to exercise it in a way that will change the Government. They have told me they cannot plan business trips, holidays or family arrangements because they want to be at home for polling day. Due to the restrictive nature of the polling arrangements the Government makes available to people, they feel they will be deprived of the right to vote.

The Fine Gael Party has proposed that the general election should be held on a week-end day. The Government's preference, which the Taoiseach has indicated, is that it should be held on a mid-week day. I acknowledge there are provisions for postal voting but these are limited. For example, a student, preparing for examinations, is unlikely to travel back to his or her primary place of residence to simply vote on a Thursday. Holding the election on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, will disenfranchise large numbers of people who wish to exercise their vote.

There is no point in the Minister quoting poll percentages from the 1990s, as the figures are unreliable. With the disorganised state of the electoral register, we do not know whether voter turn-out has gone up or down in the past 15 years. The Sunday Tribune carried several articles highlighting the oversubscribed state of the register, as did Deputies on this side of the House. The percentages for voter turn-out are therefore, wrong. The Minister attempted to draw comparisons between the percentage turn-out in local and European elections and general elections but these are very different matters. Traditionally, there is a relatively low turn-out in local and European elections and for many referenda. The percentage turn-out in the 2004 local and European elections, which were held on a Friday, stood at 58%. Given the state of the electoral register, that was a high turn-out. The reverse argument simply does not hold.

I appreciate Ministers who have been in Government for the past ten years may be detached in how people lead their lives. People are busy with work, away from home and can have various family arrangements. A mid-week polling day makes it difficult for them to vote. My preference is for elections to be held over two days. I note the Minister's comments on respecting those who observe the Sabbath as a Sunday, and likewise a Saturday, can cause difficulties for some religious minorities, making it unfair to pick an individual day. The option of conducting a general election over a two-day period should, therefore, be considered. Candidates may feel a certain discomfort, if an election were spread over 48 hours rather than a much shorter period. The priority is, however, to maximise the opportunities people have to exercise their vote.

This is one way of addressing polling, given the complex lifestyles of many people. I accept there may be constitutional issues that may have to be addressed but it is a different country to the one in 1937 when the Constitution was written. Then the idea of voting on a single day suited people's arrangements as people tended to work close to home. People tended then not to be away from their bases to the extent we experience these times.

I am not surprised the Government will make it more difficult to vote in the forthcoming election. Its handling of electoral matters has been lamentable. It had to be dragged into rectifying the electoral register. While there has been some improvement to it, we still do not have an accurate register. We could have if the Government had not been so arrogant in shooting down the advice given from this side of the House on using the census process. The Government was responsible in attempting to foist a form of electoral voting which the Commission on Electronic Voting found to be unreliable. The system had never been tested; the software could not be relied upon and could be interfered with. This was the system the Government wanted to impose on the people without listening to the advice and concerns expressed on this side of the House.

The last thing this Government will do is set the date for the general election. After ten years of many mistakes, neglect, bad decisions and arrogance, it looks like it will make a hames of that too and set a date for the general election which will inconvenience many people and disenfranchise those who would dearly wish to vote.

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