Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have heard many arguments or counter arguments from Ministers and that is one of the weakest I have heard in a long time. Regardless of the Government's intention, the feeling among the island communities is that they are being treated as second-class citizens. Can the Minister of State respond to the points I have made, which I have made on a number of occasions here, about the postal vote and how postal votes interact with the fact that the Government allows the returning officers to set a different timeframe? The Minister of State must acknowledge that after the last election, it was nearly a week after the date of designation for polling day that the returning officers designated the date for some of the islands because they have different returning officers. I was engaged in futile correspondence at that time, trying to get them to designate the date.

Let us put this on the record. Is the Minister of State aware that the Government is potentially facilitating an unconstitutional practice which has the end result of denying Irish citizens the right to vote in referenda and Dáil, European and local elections because the polling date is not designated in an appropriate time that allows those who want to avail, as is their right, of a postal vote through the different mechanisms that are available under statute?

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