Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

These are not requirements that are too difficult. If you are not able to get 60 names to assent to your nomination, and I appreciate we want to encourage people to run, but 60 is not a huge number to get when we are talking about a potential electorate of up to 1 million. While we want it to be as broad as possible, if somebody is serious about contesting an election they will be either able to raise the necessary funds to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak, or be able to contact 60 people to do it.

The fear and one of the concerns I have, and I say it to the Minister in the context of looking at the European elections and some of the others where this is a factor that has been raised by voters, is when we look at the length of some of the ballot papers, part of it is the ease with which some people are able to get on a ballot paper. Yes, we want to encourage people to get involved with the political process but this does not prevent them from doing it. It requires them to do a little bit of work, either to fundraise for the necessary funds or to find 60 people in order to put their name forward.

I encourage the Minister to look at the minimum number required in other areas to allow somebody to run. The danger is that if we make it too easy, there will be people who will just decide I will stick my name in for the laugh on that. Indeed, you then have a situation where you have a ballot paper that is a metre and a half long. We already know one of the challenges when voting for the university panels is there already are quite a number of candidates who are standing who may not be known. It is not entirely unreasonable and I say respectfully, candidates should have a minimum requirement to show they are serious about running. Sixty is not an unreasonable number; if anything I would probably set it a little bit higher.