John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 3, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following:“Amendment of section 11 of Principal Act

3. Section 11 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in paragraph (d) of subsection (2), by the deletion of “or the United Kingdom”,

(b) in subsection (3), by the deletion of “or the United Kingdom”,

(c) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (4):

“(4) (a) A person who is elected under this Act to be a representative in the Parliament, and who when so elected, holds office as—

(i) the Attorney General,

(ii) the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of the Dáil or the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of the Seanad, or

(iii) a Minister of State,

shall, on such election and no later than taking up his or her seat in the Parliament, on the date specified by the Parliament for the taking up of such seats, cease to hold that office.

(b) A person who pursuant to section 19 of this Act is to be regarded as having been elected to be a representative in the Parliament or when he or she commences to be so regarded holds office as—

(i) the Attorney General,

(ii) the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of the Dáil or the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of the Seanad, or

(iii) a Minister of State,

shall on being regarded as having being so elected, on the day on which he or she commences to be so regarded, and no later than taking up his or her seat in the Parliament, on the date specified by the Parliament for the taking up of such seats, cease to hold that office.",

and

(d) in subsection 4A—

(i) by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (a):

“(a) A person who is elected under this Act to be a representative in the Parliament, and who, when so elected, is a member of either House of the Oireachtas, shall on such election and no later than taking up his or her seat in the Parliament, on the date specified by the Parliament for the taking up of such seats, cease to be a member of the House of the Oireachtas concerned.",

and

(ii) by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (b):

“(b) A person who pursuant to section 19 of this Act is to be regarded as having been elected to be a representative in the Parliament or when he or she commences to be so regarded, and no later than taking up his or her seat in the Parliament, on the date specified by the Parliament for the taking up of such seats, shall cease to be a member of the House of the Oireachtas concerned.".".

Like amendments Nos. 1 and 4, amendments Nos. 2 and 5 also remove a number of explicit references to the United Kingdom and British citizens from the European Parliament Elections Act 1997. They include amendments to section 11 and rules 88, 92 and 94 of the Second Schedule to the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 to provide contingency arrangements in the event of a delay in the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

The amendments to section 11(4) of the principal Act are proposed to address the timing of the application of the dual mandate provisions to certain officeholders whose holding of such offices is deemed to be incompatible with membership of the European Parliament. In particular, under section 11(4), certain prescribed officeholders must cease to hold their existing offices when they are deemed to be elected to the European Parliament. This takes place at the end of the relevant count following the election. The officeholders who may be affected are Ministers of State, Chair or Deputy Chair of the Dáil, Chair or Deputy Chair of the Seanad, Members of the Oireachtas or the Attorney General.

In a scenario where there is a delay in the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, the provisions of Article 3(2) of the European Council Decision (EU) 2018/937 of 28 June 2018 establishing the composition of the European Parliament will apply. In practical terms, this means that two MEPs deemed to be elected out of the 13 deemed to be elected may not take up office in the European Parliament until the UK has exited the EU. Accordingly, given the uncertainty surrounding the timing of when these two MEP designates may be allowed to take up office, it is proposed to amend the Act to provide that these prescribed officeholders would not have to cease holding their existing offices until such time as they take up their seats in the European Parliament. It should be noted that the Council decision requires that the additional MEPs across the 14 member states affected would all take up their seats simultaneously when the UK's withdrawal becomes legally effective. This amendment will ensure that serving Members of the Oireachtas will not have to resign their seats until such time as they take up their seats in the new European Parliament, if they choose to stand for that election, are deemed to be elected and are one of the two MEPs designated who may not take up their seats on 2 July 2019 when the new European Parliament is constituted.

In the event of a delay in the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, it is proposed that the two Members who would not take up their seats immediately would be the last person elected in the constituency of South and the last person elected in the constituency of Dublin. The reason for this approach is because it was these two constituencies that were allocated additional seats in the review carried out by the independent constituency committee established last year to recommend how the increased numbers of Irish MEPs and their seats, which are increasing from 11 to 13 in the next term, should be distributed between constituencies. It should be noted that in the event that the last remaining candidates in the constituencies of Dublin and South are not in a position to take up their seats due to a delay in the UK's exit from the EU, the principle of equality of representation within these two constituencies, which underpinned the recommendations of the committee established last year to review the European Parliament constituencies, would be affected for the duration of any delay. Representation in the Dublin constituency would be 449,120 people per MEP. That is a variance of plus 3.7% from the national average. Representation in South would be 472,747 persons per MEP, which is a variance of plus 9.2% from the national average. The difference between the lowest variance, which would be Midlands–North-West at minus 12%, and the highest variance in South at 9.21% would be 21.23%. While this would be the highest on record, variances of in and around 20% were recommended by the constituency committees in 1977, 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2007, respectively. However, it is unavoidable and temporary given the use of sub-national multi-seat constituencies for the holding of elections to the European Parliament in Ireland. This issue will be resolved when the UK exits the EU and that becomes legally effective.

To ascertain the last persons deemed to be elected in Dublin and South, rule 88 of the Second Schedule of the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 makes provision for the election of the last remaining candidates in a European constituency. Where a delayed withdrawal occurs, it is proposed to amend rule 88 to allow for the transfer of votes to continue for the last remaining candidates in the Dublin and South constituencies until such time as the final candidates in these constituencies are deemed to be elected. This will ensure that the last remaining candidates will each have a total number of votes that can be used to inform which candidate in each of the two constituencies will not take up his or her seat in the event that the withdrawal of the UK from the Union is deferred post the holding of elections on the last weekend in May.

The amendment to rule 92 complements the amendment to Rule 88 in that it provides that the returning officers in Dublin and South will publicly announce the order of election in respect of the last remaining candidates deemed to be elected in each of those constituencies. This will ensure that the order of election in respect of the final candidate in each of the constituencies of Dublin and South is clear and unambiguous, which will facilitate the chief returning officer in making his or her return under rule 92 of the European Parliament Elections Act on the take up of seats in those constituencies in the event that the withdrawal of the UK from the Union is deferred post the holding of elections in May.

The amendments to rule 94 will provide for the deferral of the last candidates to be elected in the Dublin and South constituencies from taking up their seats in 2019-2024 European Parliament until such time as a date for the additional seats allocated to a number of member states, including Ireland, to be taken up is established. It is proposed that the implementation of the amendments to section 11 of the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 and rules 88, 92 and 94 of the Second Schedule to that Act will be subject to a commencement order. When the timing of the UK's withdrawal from the Union is confirmed, it will become clearer whether there will be a need to implement these provisions in the Bill.

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