Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

On a number of occasions over the past 12 months I have raised the matter of our failure to take any meaningful measures to promote the local elections and to encourage people to vote. Our local elections are only a week away. However, the Minister has compounded the problem by deciding that polling stations should close at 9 p.m. on voting day, Friday, 11 June. This is inexcusable in the middle of summer.