Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Sinn Féin broadly welcomes this Bill that, if passed, would allow a general election to be held on a weekend day rather than on a Thursday. I would also point out at the outset that we would have preferred for this Bill to have gone further and allow for elections to be held either on a Saturday or over two days as is the case in many of the continental elections. Our European counterparts have proven this can and does work. Such an approach would ensure the maximum turnout possible.

Electoral politics must be accessible to everyone but the current arrangement, and that signalled for the upcoming general election, simply does not accommodate that requirement. If a one day election must still be held, Sinn Féin would prefer it to be held on a Saturday to accommodate the many students, young people and those who work away from home who will not be able to make it back to their home constituencies on Thursday to vote.

This Government has disproved its own arguments about having elections or voting on a Saturday when it decided that the electorate got it wrong in the first Nice treaty vote and held the second vote on a Saturday. A Saturday vote would avoid disruption of the leaving certificate examinations, as happened in the 2004 local and European elections, and would also ensure that most third level students would not be disenfranchised as a result of the election being held on an examination day. What possible benefit is there for the Government to disenfranchise so many?

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