Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for the amendments and I think we have struck the right balance here. In summary, section 34 requires the nomination of a candidate to the higher education constituency to be either, as outlined in the Bill, assented to by 60 persons who are registered electors in that constituency or the payment of a deposit of €1,800. We have to value our electoral process too in the sense that we have people who are motivated to run and put their name forward because we want to have representatives here who will represent the electorate in that constituency. There is a balance to be struck there. There is no hurdle put in by the provisions that are here.

These are absolutely appropriate provisions and amendment No. 43 proposes to reduce the number of assenters required to secure a nomination from 60 to eight people. That could be your family if they all went to one of the universities. Setting it at 60 is the appropriate level. Amendment No.47 is consequential on No. 43 which seeks to reduce the number of statutory declarations required from assenters from 60 to ten. As I mentioned, the Bill provides for the requirement that a candidate's nomination be assented to by 60 electors or the payment of an €1,800 deposit. It is worth nothing these thresholds are the same that apply to the nomination of non-party candidates for election to the European Parliament. Earlier today, we discussed that the constituency itself will be pretty similar to the Dublin European constituency.We have provided the same requirements for someone to be listed as a candidate in these elections along that line because there are genuine issues right now not just with the length of ballot papers but also the length of ballot papers led by the number of candidates. The Electoral Commission is looking at that very thing right now.