Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the author of today's Bill. It is a good debate in which we are all interested because it is so important to us, to democracy and to our communities. If we are serious about people participating in politics, it is vital we get it right. The Minister mentioned greater voter participation, with which we all agree. The different parties have all tried to enhance the process by getting more people involved and encouraging more people to register. I commend the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice, which does much outreach work with marginalised groups, trying to get them on the register and encourage them to vote. In my constituency it has reached out to the new Irish, brought them along, had guards there and got people registered. It makes people feel part of the process and explains issues to them. Sometimes candidates are brought in and debates held. It has helped create interest among those groups.

Some speakers raised the issue of locating polling stations in schools. Depending on one's generation, for many people school was not a very happy period in their lives. I have met people on the doorsteps who are not happy, particularly those who have literacy problems. There used to be a garda on the door. Voters have to go in and present identification, and for people who have never voted, it is not very welcoming. It would be more welcoming to have polling stations in the community centres where people probably go more regularly rather than the schools. We need to open up the debate on the best location.

During the last election, the Holy Rosary School in Ballycragh was a polling station, but on the day of the election the school was a building site. People who had difficulty walking or who were in wheelchairs could not access the polling station. Another school in Dún Laoghaire had similar access problems. Eventually, local residents put together a home-made ramp, while the staff said they could not get involved for health and safety reasons. There was no way to access the Holy Rosary School in Ballycragh. A sign pointed through a hedge, which led to a gravel footpath. It sounds like something from "Father Ted" but I have photographs of it. After dark, there was no lighting on this long path. As a result, some people could not vote. I tried to telephone the sheriff's office but could not get through. I sent an e-mail and he sent an apologetic reply. He should not have apologised to me but to the people who did not have a vote. I said in future the venue should have been inspected the day before the election. Although it had been promised that the work would have been carried out, it was not. It is a scandal and should never happen, and we need to put in structures.

The Minister talked about alienation from the political system and mentioned the Lisbon treaty. There were other factors in this issue. Because of the "No" vote there was a lot of media coverage and everybody was coming out. It was like "Chicken Little", with people predicting that the sky would fall. There was a larger turnout, and many people who voted the first time did not vote the second time because they questioned how often one had to say "No" to the proposal. Such matters affect people. There is a disconnect between society and politics.

Speakers mentioned the electoral register. In the 2007 election in which I lost my seat, in west Tallaght alone, 4,500 people, including whole estates, were removed from the register. Many of us who were active in the election went to the council to ask who it had removed from the register, but were told it could not tell us. We went to the Minister of the day, there was a discussion in the House, and he was instructed that we were to get a list. While 2,000 people were put back on the register, 2,500 were left off. The register is supposed to be updated, not have people removed from it. This is still a problem. If someone knocks on a door and nobody is there, in some cases the person or household can be removed from the register. We all know of cases of families being removed from the register, and they usually find out on polling day.

I recently had a bizarre case of a Traveller woman who was to vote for the first time in her life. Her name was Elizabeth Ann, but because her identification gave her name as Ann Elizabeth, the presiding officer did not allow her to vote. It was crazy. In another case, a young man's polling card went to the wrong address and, again, there was a problem because the identification did not match the address on the register. One can go to the presiding officer and argue with him or her, but these are simple issues. We want to encourage more people to get involved.

At the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, BIPA, people from the British jurisdictions told me how important the postal vote was to their system. We have gone the opposite way, and it is more and more difficult to get a postal vote. People talked about holidays and so on. They have much more flexibility in their system, and people can vote by proxy. They have tried to adapt their system to make it more voter friendly, and we need to do the same. Others spoke about the importance of the diaspora vote, which was highlighted by the Constitutional Convention. The figures on establishing an electoral commission were interesting. If we had an electoral commission, it would instruct each local authority to inspect each polling site to be used in the next election and, if it were found to be unsuitable, arrange an alternative. There are many halls and centres and we could be flexible.

I thank the Deputy for moving the Bill. While I agree with the Minister that there needs to be greater time flexibility, a fixed time and day would be helpful. In past elections it has been difficult for students or workers to return to their constituencies.

Most presiding officers reckon the 7 a.m. starting time is not really much use to shift workers and it would be more helpful if polls opened at 6.30 a.m. That would provide some leeway, although it would lead to longer days. Some say that 10.30 p.m. should be the closing time and I would prefer the polling day to be earlier rather than later. It is just my opinion but the 7 a.m. start does not really help matters.

I thank Deputy Doyle for his Bill and this should be the start of a debate rather than the end. We must keep working to refine this process. I am glad we are having a debate on this for the first time, and I say "well done" to the Bill's proposer.

See this speech in context