Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

These are the same principles. I believe in how it is worded that it could be carried through in that persons who had registered to vote would be considered as having made a claim to register to vote in the new higher education constituency. While I recognise it is a new constituency, it is not simply a matter of merging the two but, rather, that as the beginning point for the new constituency those who have registered to vote prior to next January would be considered to have made a claim to vote, provided that person had voted in two of the previous three electoral events occurring in either constituency. As I say, it is bad practice. There are 200,000 people in the constituency. Even if we look to those who actively voted in the NUI constituency, we are looking at 30,000 to 40,000 persons who exercised their vote. To be clear, this is 30,000 to 40,000 persons who have exercised their vote as recently as 2020 who are going to be removed from the register. It is probably one of the largest removals of persons from a register we have seen and I urge there be reflection on what it is to take 40,000 active voters off the register. It is removing from them a vote they currently have and requiring them to seek that vote again. It is quite a substantial number. As I said, I am not speaking even of all those who are on the register, as I am in one of my other amendments. I am speaking about those who voted on the last occasion, in the situation of a global pandemic where they had to make considerable effort to exercise that franchise and vote. Creating an additional obstacle or additional registration requirement for those who are already active voters is a poor way to start what we hope to be an expansion of those participating in Seanad elections. This is taking 40,000 active voters off the field with respect to the NUI constituency. I cannot speak to the exact numbers who voted in the Trinity constituency, but I imagine they are roughly equivalent. It is a bad decision. It would be good to include those who voted in the last Seanad election, but at an absolute minimum those who vote in the next Seanad election should be considered as making a claim for inclusion in the new register. That fact could be communicated to them and if they did not want to be on the new register they could choose to opt out. The key point is it should be made as easy as possible and we are making it unnecessarily difficult for persons to retain their vote for the university seats in this House.