Seanad debates

Tuesday, 29 May 2018

2:30 pm

Photo of Victor BoyhanVictor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious of the discussions and the debate on the referendum and I do not want to repeat what other Senators have said. One thing that became clear during the campaign is that it was a good exercise. It was important we had engagement on all sides of the debate. We must never lose sight of the fact that we live in a Republic in which people are free and have the right to express their views and do not have to be vilified or condemned for the views they hold. It is great that we can have a debate and that people can challenge all sides of that debate. That is really important. The vote was important and timely.

On the vote itself, I appeal to Government Members in particular to use their influence. It is about time we had a fully independent electoral commission to operate elections and manage the electoral registers in this country. I met people in my town who went to vote and were told they were not on the register. They had never taken themselves off it. We talk about a 65% turnout. We do not really know the turnout because of the large inaccuracies on the registers of electors. I suggest that it is timely that we had an initiative from the Government to establish a fully independent electoral commission that would govern and police all elections and maintain the registers of electors. I wish to take a final opportunity to thank the electoral commission because it did a really good job during this campaign. It has done likewise in the past but it did an exceptionally good job this time, which is worth remembering.

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