Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important legislation. I support the Government's intention to provide for same-day voting on islands in elections and referendums. This would affect many island voters in my constituency of Donegal who have been advocating for same-day voting for a long time. There is no reason why island voters should be forced to vote in advance. It is important that every voter is allowed access to all information on upcoming elections and referendums. This includes making sure that everyone has the ability to watch late debates and follow changing stories before casting their votes. Island voters should not be treated any differently to the rest of the country and I am pleased to see that the intention is that they will not be any longer. We must ensure that happens. Same-day voting is more than doable for all the islands at this stage with modern communication methods.

I also support the Government's intention to amend the Electoral Act 1997. This is long overdue. I am pleased that we are finally addressing areas in this Act that require amendment. I specifically support the amendment of section 22 of the Electoral Act. I hope the Government will take on board the amendments that have been put forward regarding the term "political purposes". The inclusion of this term has created very unfortunate unforeseen consequences. I was very disappointed to see that this was not addressed in the drafting of the Electoral Reform Bill 2022. I urge the Government to accept the proposed amendments to address the issue.

A very important aspect of modern, democratic societies is ensuring that civil society has a voice and plays an important role in policymaking. To take way this role would be incredibly undemocratic and would only serve to weaken legislation in this country. However, as the law currently defines it, "political purposes" actually encompasses human rights and social justice work. Shockingly, the inclusion of this definition in the Electoral Act 1997 has placed a ban on any group of citizens raising money to campaign for a particular policy or to criticise the activities of the Government. Groups now run the risk of facing serious financial penalties and possible imprisonment for speaking out on the very issues most of them have first-hand experience of dealing with.

Advocacy groups receiving donations and working on the ground should be able to speak out, advise and criticise Government policies. Furthermore, we should be actively seeking to include these voices. Most often, these are the groups that are seeing and experiencing the issues at first hand, and they have played an incredibly important role in influencing policy in this country. We should be capable of including a definition that differentiates between community and advocacy groups and groups with private sector influence. Obviously, the intent behind the legislation in the first place was to curb the corporate lobbyists. It should be possible to do that without curbing community groups as well. The Electoral Act seriously compromises Ireland's democratic values in disallowing advocacy groups from undertaking this role. Advocacy must be supported at all costs. We must do all we can to protect the rights of groups to continue their work. Accordingly, I sincerely hope that this particular amendment is accepted.

Overall, I support this motion. However, I hope that the committee's input and the many Opposition amendments put forward are equally supported by the Government as this legislation passes through all Stages. It is important that while we facilitate things happening in this House, the Government should be capable of facilitating work in the committee and taking on board amendments that have value put forward by the Opposition as well.

See this speech in context