Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We must always strive to make democracy inclusive and accessible. While I acknowledge the constitutional review group is dealing with the bigger issues, I believe there are challenges this Government could tackle immediately without ever touching the Constitution. While this Bill appears to be technical, simply putting in place structures to reflect EU directives and the new reality of the Minister's local government proposals, it also offers opportunities in regard to voter registration. The Bill gives the Government an opportunity to make voter registration easier and more accessible. Part 4 deals with supplements to postal and service voter lists. Many people do not query whether they are on the electoral register until an election is within weeks. To get onto the supplementary register, a member of the public must obtain a form, fill it out, have it signed by a garda and send it to the relevant local authority. While at a superficial level this may seem a simple procedure, it is another obstacle in the way of the public exercising their right to vote.

Exercising one's vote should be encouraged and easy. Many residents fill out a new form, get it stamped by a member of the gardaí in a Garda station and return the form to the local authority in needless bureaucracy. The application should be valid with or without a Garda stamp, and the form should be completed electronically. In this era of information technology, it should all be computerised. There is no evidence or information that it is so important that it cannot be included on electronic forms. It would make it far easier, particularly for young first-time voters.

This raises the question of voter registration itself. It seems archaic that in the 21st century we still expect people to register and re-register to vote. When I buy a television licence once, I am registered and do not have to re-register annually. Those who are registered pay their licence fee every year without any need to re-register. The same principle should apply to voting. In this regard, I must raise a serious concern. It has been the practice to remove people from the voting register. Every single party at election time discovers people who have voted for it over many years who are no longer on the register. This is wrong and it is a disgrace. People are unaware of the practice until it happens to them and their neighbours during an election. This practice must stop. It appears the Government is suspicious of the electorate and puts barriers in place to ensure they do not exercise their vote.

All the voter education in the world is useless unless we make the registration process easy and more accessible. I ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to review the process. I understand that one is automatically registered once one becomes 18 and is put permanently on the register. In certain elections, a voter can vote in any voting centre over a two-day voting period, usually on a Saturday or Sunday. In this State, however, we make the process awkward and cumbersome. In saying that, I understand the Irish political system, according to the Integration Centre's annual report of 2012, is generally deemed to be inclusive and to offer favourable conditions for migrant integration.

While residents need to be full Irish citizens to vote and stand in presidential and general elections, or to vote on referenda, all residents - regardless of status - can vote in local elections. We are one of 14 EU states that allow for this. While others, including Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, impose a condition that a person must be resident for five years - Britain and Ireland, thankfully, have no such precondition.

This has its own challenges, however. It is one thing to allow people to vote, but the real challenge is to ensure that people actually participate in their democracy. Reliable national data on registered electors by nationalist groups do not exist, but an analysis of Dublin City Council's electoral register was undertaken in 2012. The study found that just 8,068 non-EU nationals in Dublin City were listed in the 2010-11 register of electors. The census shows that there were 32,659 non-EU nationals aged 18 or over living in Dublin. This indicated that only 25% of those eligible to vote were registered, while of within-EU nationals almost 6,400 were registered out of a population of 39,028. This means that just one in six potential EU voters was registered, while the percentage of British nationals registered to vote was 74%.

This study highlights the need for local awareness campaigns. Examples of these are the "Count Us In" campaign run by the Immigration Council of Ireland; the migration voter education campaign led by Dublin City Council; and the "Our Vote Can Make a Difference" campaign managed by the New Communities Partnership and the African Centre. This is particularly important as we approach the local and EU elections next year.

This challenge is not reserved to local elections because an increasing number of non-EU nationals are receiving Irish citizenship. The number has increased from 4,969 in 2010 to 9,529 in 2011, and an estimated 23,200 in 2012. This is due in part to improving waiting times and a low rejection rate. This poses challenges to ensure that these citizens enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as everybody else.

The important challenge is to ensure that people participate in the decision-making process in this State. Registration drives must be done in different languages and in partnership with migrant communities. Political parties must also make themselves accessible to Ireland's new residents. No party has a monopoly on this issue and we must avoid political point-scoring in this regard. We must make ourselves accessible and open to engaging with migrant communities, not just at election time but also before and after elections.

The challenge is to ensure that all residents in Ireland - regardless of where they are from, how long they have been here, or how they got here - feel included and are included in our democratic structures. Progress is being made but we have a journey ahead of us. It is only if the Government takes the lead, with cross-party support, that we will complete this journey.

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