John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

Going back to Deputy Lynch's point, it is not accurate to say that someone categorised as homeless has no right to vote. A homeless person faces particular difficulties in engaging with the electoral process, including his name being entered on the register of electors. Current law provides that persons shall be registered where they are ordinarily resident. The question arises of the best way to link a homeless person with an address and that matter is best left between the local registration authority and the person concerned. The possibilities that arise include registering people at hostels or shelters permanently or temporarily. Local authorities have a flexible approach to voter registration for homeless people. It is not necessarily the case that proof of address will be demanded in every case. I look to local authorities to be reasonable and adopt a common sense approach in such cases given the circumstances.

If there is a need for documentation there are options. It is sufficient for a homeless person living in a hostel to produce a letter from the hostel verifying his residence to collect unemployment assistance. I see no reason local authorities could not follow suit. A homeless person with no fixed abode is entitled to the weekly supplementary welfare allowance which is paid at the post office in the area in which he is based. The person has a card that enables him to withdraw money. This could be sufficient for registration. Sometimes a homeless person is booked into an emergency hostel or bed and breakfast where rent allowance is payable and this is another way of assigning a place. While we are not directly discussing this in the amendment, I wanted to clarify that.

Deputy Howlin is right in what he said about borough councils, there is a variation between them. Wexford is in this situation, as is Drogheda. We did not have the numbers, however, from the census for borough councils and that is why we opted for €7,500. Many candidates contest both borough council elections and county council elections and we have made allowances for that, with an extra spend being permitted for those who do. They will not be disadvantaged in that regard because there is still a level playing field. There is a slight anomaly but it is down to the population figures currently available to us.

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