Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 187, it be an instruction to the Dáil in Committee on the Electoral Reform Bill 2022, that it has power to make amendments to the Bill which are outside the scope of the existing provisions of the Bill, in relation to amendments to:

(a) sections 2, 3, 22, 23A, 25, 43, 46, 48A, 61, 83, 84, 85, 86 and 88 of the Electoral Act 1997 and the insertion of new sections 4B, 24B, 91 and 92 into the Electoral Act 1997 for the purposes of providing powers of investigation to the Standards in Public Office Commission, enhancing transparency in relation to certain donations to political parties and to provide, inter alia, for the preparation by political parties of consolidated annual statements of accounts; and

(b) sections 85, 86, 96, 108 and 114 of the Electoral Act 1992; sections 3, 7 and 42 of the Presidential Elections Act 1993; sections 2, 13 and 30 of the Referendum Act 1994; articles 49, 50 and 76 of the Local Elections Regulations 1995; sections 26 of the Local Government Act 2001; sections 10, and rules 48, 49 and 75 of the Second Schedule of the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 for the purposes of providing for same day voting on islands at elections and referendums.

I am sharing time with Deputy McAuliffe. The purpose of this motion is to instruct the Dáil in committee, pursuant to Standing Order 187, that it has power to make amendments to the Electoral Reform Bill 2022 outside the scope of the existing provisions of the Bill. In this regard, I propose to introduce amendments to the Bill on Committee Stage, to be held in Dáil Éireann later this afternoon. The Committee Stage amendments to the Bill in the motion are twofold and comprise amendments to the Electoral Act 1997, and amendments to the provision for island voting in the Electoral Act 1992, the Presidential Elections Act 1993, the Referendum Act 1994, the Local Elections Regulations 1995, the Local Government Act 2001 and the European Parliament Elections Act 1997.

I will now set out the amendments to the scope of the Electoral Reform Bill 2022 relating to the Electoral Act 1997, or Part 6 of the amended Bill. As the House will be aware, Programme for Government - Our Shared Future commits the Government to reviewing “our current electoral laws and the conduct of politics in Ireland, to ensure that donations and resources from non-citizens outside the State are not being utilised to influence our elections and political process.” It goes on to state we will legislate to prevent this if necessary.

In late January 2021, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and I wrote to all 25 political parties on the register of political parties seeking their views on the regulation of electoral funding from outside the jurisdiction of the State and on other related matters in the context of the Government commitment.

The amendments I intend to move on Committee Stage of the Electoral Reform Bill 2022 arise as a result of that consultation process and were informed by further engagement between my Department and Government parties. In summary, the proposed amendments will: strengthen the definition of "subsidiary organisation" to clarify that it includes a body or association which maintains an office outside the State; amend the definition of "donation" to confirm that it includes any donation from a subsidiary organisation located outside the State; update the definition of "institution" in the light of changes in the financial services sector and to include credit unions within its meaning, which will allow political donations accounts to be opened within credit union institutions for the first time; prohibit the acceptance of donations of any value in the form of a cryptocurrency; impose a new obligation on the leaders of political parties to provide a written statement and an accompanying statutory declaration in respect of each year to the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, stating that all donations from outside of the State, whether in cash or in kind, have been declared and that no other donations, either in cash or in kind, took place; insert new requirements into the Act to confirm that the preparation of the annual statements of accounts must be in accordance with guidelines published by SIPO and with the relevant requirements of the FRS 102 financial reporting standard and the inclusion of all property in the ownership or control of the political party and its subsidiary organisations when the annual statements of accounts are being prepared; and provide a wide range of investigatory powers to SIPO, as the body currently responsible for regulatory oversight under the Act.

These provisions are modelled on similar powers in the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015. The proposed amendments are designed to strengthen and enhance the transparency measures already in place around the funding of our political system and will further protect our democracy against malign foreign influence at a time of unprecedented global threats.

The second set of amendments to the Electoral Reform Bill 2022 included in this motion will amend the Electoral Act 1992, the Presidential Elections Act 1993, the Referendum Act 1994, the Local Elections Regulations 1995, the Local Government Act 2001 and the European Parliament Elections Act 1997 to provide for same-day island voting at all elections and referendums in Ireland. These amendments will ensure polling at elections and referendums on the islands will take place on the same day as the rest of the country. The amendments would be inserted into the Bill by way of a new Part 7 and an amendment to section 3 of the Bill, and will amend the Electoral Acts mentioned as follows. The amendments will remove the existing provisions in the Electoral Acts that currently allow returning officers to take the poll on islands at elections and referendums up to five days before the appointed polling day where, in the opinion of the returning officer, it would be impracticable due to stress of weather or transport difficulties to either take the poll on the appointed polling day or to deliver the ballot boxes to the count centre by 9 a.m. the following day, if the poll were to go ahead on polling day.

The amendments to the Bill will also insert new provisions into all electoral codes to allow the Minister the power to make an order to shorten polling hours on an island at an election or referendum where it would be unnecessary or impracticable to have full polling hours due to local circumstances and taking account of the advice of the returning officer. Such an order must be made no later than seven days before polling day and the amended polling period must not be less than four hours. The returning officer would be required to give public notice in the polling district of the times and date of the poll. The local circumstances to be considered include the size of the electorate on the island, distance between a polling station on an island and the count centre, advance weather forecasts or foreseen transport difficulties. Accordingly, the amendments to the Bill will amend the existing provisions in the Electoral Acts, which currently allow for polling hours on islands to be reduced on polling day itself where weather or transport difficulties affect the commencement of the poll or the timely delivery of ballot boxes to the count centre, in order to clarify that these are emergency provisions to be used only in the event of unforeseen weather or transport difficulties on polling day itself. The amendments to the Bill will amend the preliminary procedures for the counting of votes in the Electoral Acts to allow returning officers, in the event of weather or transport difficulties at an election or referendum that would give rise to the late arrival of ballot boxes from a polling station on an island, to proceed with the opening of ballot boxes and the verification of ballot paper accounts for each box that have been received. These tasks typically take a number of hours to complete and the proposed amendments would allow these tasks to be commenced pending the late arrival of ballot boxes from a polling station on an island.

I look forward to the debate on the motion.

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