Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate everyone who put their names forward for the local elections and the European elections. It takes great courage to put one's name before the public. I congratulate those who were successful and wish the best of luck to those who were not successful on this occasion.

I support the call for a debate on reform of the electoral register. We have heard many issues raised in recent weeks as to how difficult it is to get a vote. There are people who go on holidays they had booked before an election was called and they should be entitled to vote. It should be made easier for them to register to get a postal vote. It should also be made a lot easier for people not registered to vote to do so, besides having to go to the local Garda station. In some cases, people who are sick must go to the doctor. A lot of things can be done to make it much easier for many people to vote in elections. During the meetings of the Seanad reform committee, some of us raised the issue of extending the franchise to everyone in the Republic, Northern Ireland, America and Irish citizens all over the world. We can now see in the Ireland South constituency the logistics involved in having a large ballot paper. Twenty-three names were on the ballot paper in Ireland South. In the Seanad elections we could have a larger electorate than the 750,000 people in Ireland South.