Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a broad consensus across this House that this Bill is long overdue. My colleague, an Teachta Ó Broin, informs me there has been significant pre-legislative scrutiny of it at committee level. This is important legislation. It is clear that our electoral system, and the register of electors, is in dire need of modernisation.

This Bill will see the creation of an independent electoral commission and better regulation of online advertising and the use of online platforms during elections. This Bill provides an opportunity to create a fairer electoral system and to have an electoral register that accurately reflects the electorate. However, it is a missed opportunity to lower the voting age to 16 for local and European elections. The establishment of the electoral commission is a positive step, but it is too restrictive that the chairperson of this new body must be a former judge. While the chairperson may need legal expertise, it need not necessarily be judicial experience.

Like much of our work in this House, the success of this legislation will depend on the availability of funding to underpin its intentions. I ask the Minister to set out plans to ensure this legislation is successful. We must ensure that the needs of those who feel most excluded from our electoral process are addressed. We all have areas in our constituencies where voter turnout is below 20%. We have all met people on the doors whose first language is not Irish or English and who do not know whether they are entitled to vote. We all know people with different abilities who may not know they can apply for postal votes or move to a more accessible polling station. We must engage proactively with marginalised groups including, but not limited to, women, people of colour, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex, LGBTI+ people, members of the Traveller and Roma communities, migrants, young people, people with disabilities and people from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Our current postal and proxy voting system is too restrictive. We should look to other European countries and bring ourselves more in line with them.

I will raise the matter of the recent Seanad by-election. Voting in the constituency was limited to just under 68,000 graduates of Trinity College Dublin. The total number of ballots returned was 13,500, which amounts to a turnout of just under 20%. In 2013, the Irish people voted to keep the Seanad. Many were lured by vague promises of reform. It is almost ten years on and nothing has been done. Reform is possible, even without constitutional change. The current system is undemocratic and needs to be addressed.

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