Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Before I ask for a debate, I congratulate Senator O'Donovan and the Seanad Public Consultation Committee on the farm safety report, which will be very useful. We look forward to debating it in the House.

It is less than 100 years since this country gained independence. The momentous decision at the weekend shows how much we have moved on in that 100 years. It has vindicated the work done by Senator Norris, Senator Zappone and many other people in this House. With regard to the result of the by-election in Carlow-Kilkenny, I wish to congratulate my old adversary from Kilkenny County Council, my good friend Bobby Aylward, on his election to Dáil Éireann. I look forward to working with him as a constituency colleague. I also congratulate my colleague, Councillor David Fitzgerald, who put up a good show on the Fine Gael ticket.

It is with regard to the by-election and the referendum that I raise this matter. I ask the acting Leader to request a debate on the electoral system. It can be seen that the referendum captured the imagination of the people when one notes that more than 65,000 people registered to vote and more than 2,500 of those were in Carlow-Kilkenny, whether for the by-election or the referendum. However, what concerns me is that in the Carlow-Kilkenny by-election there were 2,066 spoiled votes, that is, 3% of those who voted, whereas in the referendum vote the proportion of spoiled votes was 1%, over 600 votes, which is the national average. I saw the boxes being opened because I was helping with the tally, and I saw the spoiled votes being counted and sorted. More than 1,000 of those spoiled votes had no preference marked on the paper. Therefore, there were people who wanted to vote in the referendum but did not offer any preference as to whom they wanted as their representative for Carlow-Kilkenny. Besides the 1,000 papers which showed no preference, there were also spoiled votes that had the usual comments written on them. Perhaps people are entitled to do as they wish with their vote, but in my view, young people need to be educated on how our PR system works. As seasoned politicians, we are often baffled as to how voting preferences work. I noted that some voting papers had 12 preferences indicated for 13 candidates. It is important that people vote down the list on the voting paper.