Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 20, between lines 39 and 40, to insert the following:

"15.—It shall be a function of each local authority to prepare and make available to the public without charge accurate and up to date maps of the local electoral areas within the functional area of the authority.".

This concerns a simple day to day aspect of the efficient management of elections and local elections, both for those who engage in the electoral process and for the public.

I am not sure of the situation in the Minister of State's constituency, but in my own area of Cork South-Central and in others around the country there appear to be two clear difficulties. One is that the local franchise office may, or may not, have a map of the constituency available to people. If they do, that map is probably several years out of date and does not take into account the build in recent housing estates. The estate I live in is not on the electoral map, for instance. There are tracts of land in Cork city and in its suburban areas that are not on the map. Moving further out of Cork city, the county franchise office has no street map or town map for the town of Carrigaline.

The amendment tabled by the Labour Party calls for a common sense requirement to facilitate the efficient operation of elections. Just as the franchise office is required to maintain, update and provide as accurate a register as it can, another part of its duties is to provide accurate maps and other details. The local authority should be responsible for making such maps available just as they make available copies of the register. This should be a day to day operational function of the local authorities. It is with the intent of having good sense and good practice that I put forward this amendment. I ask the Minister to accept it on the basis that it is an improvement on the existing scheme.

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