Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

Awful things can happen. I advocate a common sense approach whereby a candidate would be given some indication that a poster is still up. If a candidate receives a telephone call about a poster, it will be taken down that evening. Nobody leaves posters up after an election deliberately.

Deputy Michael Higgins is correct that the Minister should refrain completely from placing posters in the same category as litter. Not only should he do so by changing his language but also by changing the framework in which he considers posters. Posters are not litter but a necessary aspect of the democratic process. They inform people as to who candidates are and, particularly with regard to local elections, they play a very positive role in differentiating one electoral area from another. One can claim to know the candidates in one's local electoral area because one can see their pictures outside one's door on posters, thus allowing one to discriminate between electoral areas.

Before becoming a Member of the Dáil, I worked as an adult literacy organiser. We ran a campaign to have candidates' photographs printed on ballot sheets. This campaign succeeded and it has enhanced the democratic process. Postering works along the same lines in that it is an easy means of communication that allows one to recognise the face of a candidate on the ballot sheet at the polling station. This facilitates people, especially those with reading and writing difficulties, to exercise their democratic right to vote at a polling station. Any restrictions on posters must be considered in light of the democratic deficit their abolition would create and not in light of their being constituted as litter and pollution. If people have a difficulty with posters during an election, it must be balanced against the role of posters in facilitating democracy. Common sense needs to be applied to the taking down of posters and postering must be regarded as a fundamental aspect of the democratic and electoral processes.

During Committee Stage, the Labour Party will table a number of amendments. I will mention an amendment the Minister will table on correlating population with the CSO and census reports. This is an obvious shortcoming in the Bill and I am glad the Minister proposes to correct it because the Labour Party intended to table an amendment on it.

When the Minister gives his conclusions at the close of the debate this evening, I will ask him to clarify a number of matters including how use of the Internet is measured in electoral costings. Most candidates and every political party has a website where details of candidates, press releases, biographies and other matters are stored and may have been archived over the past ten years. We need to tread very gingerly on this because the total cost of maintaining a website can be quite significant and if it was proportioned, it may cover the entire expenditure a candidate is allowed. This needs to be clarified and examined by the Minister because it is an area where electioneering may or may not be carried out but where the candidate is providing information that may or may not be costed. I would be interested to hear what the Minister has to say on this matter.

Candidates, particularly in local elections, may advertise in free sheets and provincial newspapers which are published on a weekly basis. Often, the publication date of a weekly newspaper may be Friday but it arrives on the shelves in the local town on Tuesday or Wednesday. This advertising must be costed in a single fashion. Will it be based on the publication date as stated on the newspaper on sale in the final week prior to the election if this means the candidate is advertising that week but because the publication date is the Friday that cost is not actually measured? Is the schedule worked out over the 60 day period and one hopes that things even themselves out as best they can?

Advertising, particularly during the final week prior to an election is quite a significant portion of any candidate's expenditure and if a Friday or Saturday is the publication day of a weekly newspaper, one ends up with an obvious shortcoming in terms of the account afterwards. It is best that candidates have this information now so they do not find themselves in default of the legislation not because of any practice on their own behalf, but because of an absence of a clear direction within the legislation itself.

Is the use of Oireachtas envelopes during the 60 day period costed? There seems to be something very odd in the explanatory memorandum to the Bill because it does not seem to cover this area. Remarkably, Part IIIA is not mentioned in the explanatory memorandum. The effect of Part IIIA seems to be that providing Oireachtas envelopes to a local candidate will incur expenditure as part of the spending quota. I would like to hear further feedback on this from the Minister.

When there are party political broadcasts and leaders of political parties are speaking, it is either a good opportunity to sit down and digest one's dinner by watching or a good excuse to go for a few pints after nine o'clock having listened to the debate. On Saturday night two weeks ago, the Taoiseach made a very interesting comment on his views on electoral spending. The Labour Party will table an amendment which captures the sentiments he expressed that evening. This amendment states:

In page 4, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:

"and

(c) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (11):

"(12) Where a political party incurs expenses and payments under this section as amended by the Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2009 on a local election to which that Act applies and in particular to which Part IIIA of this Act as inserted by that Act applies, then for the year in which such local election is held and in each year until the following such election, that political party may not accept any donation exceeding €4,000 per year from any one donor and shall declare any donation exceeding €2,500 per year from any one donor.".".

This amendment will give effect to the announcement made by the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, to the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis on reducing the amounts and disclosure of limits to political parties. He stated:

I want to go even further. As part of the ongoing reform programme which the Government is undertaking in this area, we will be proposing a major reduction in both the levels at which donations to national political parties must be disclosed and to the maximum allowable donations. Specifically, we will propose the halving of the declaration limit from just over €5,000 per year to €2,500. For the maximum allowable donation the figure would fall from roughly €6,500 per year to €4,000 per year.

I understand the Taoiseach is busy these days and did not get around to submitting the amendment himself so the Labour Party has obliged him by tabling it. I hope the Taoiseach supports his own sentiments when we vote on this tomorrow. To keep the amendment in order, we limited it to parties which contest the local elections, but this covers the substance of the Taoiseach's commitment. If the Minister wants to broaden it to cover all parties, then an instruction to the Oireachtas committee can be made but the Opposition has no control over this. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response on this issue tomorrow, and to seeing the Taoiseach vote in support of the sentiments.

I will turn to a matter which is at the heart of the issue. At present, homeless people do not have the right to exercise their franchise. This is a remnant of a different period in Ireland when only property owners had the right to vote. Tomorrow, the Labour Party will table an amendment to correct this obvious anomaly. At present, the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill is going through the Oireachtas. When it was first published, the Government failed to included any mention of the homelessness issue. This is significant legislation and a chronic problem was not mentioned. Subsequently, the Government corrected this and mention is now made of the homeless issue.

This is an opportunity for the Government to make amends for its earlier error. There is no good reason for this not to be in place. Homeless people can be registered with their local authority through the Simon Community. In Dublin, this could be done through the single authority which deals with homelessness. I can state for a fact that if homeless people were registered, the omission in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill would not have happened because the Government would have realised that homeless people had a vote and that they mattered, and they would have been counted. Not only are they without a home and a roof over their heads but they are without the basic right of any citizen of this country, namely, the right to vote. I call on the Government to use common sense on this issue tomorrow and to support the amendment. It improves democracy and participation in it.

It is an established fact that expenditure is directly tied to outcome in elections. The expenditure limits are welcome. The Labour Party has campaigned for many years for this legislation and we welcome the fact that it is before the House. It is unfortunate that the delay has created this 60-day period. It should have been scheduled over a longer time. In a Private Members' Bill I brought before the House, we suggested that it be scheduled over nine months. Most of the research in this area suggests that it should be over a nine to 12 month period.

The legislation is new and is being enacted before the local elections. However, with the best will in the world, anomalies and shortcomings will be found in the Bill, so I ask the Minister to have the process examined. When the Dáil resumes in the autumn, we can correct the flaws that are found so that we are not in a crisis in five years where we have to examine more legislation to deal with local elections just before they take place.

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