Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. This is an issue I raised last wee. This is a worrying and serious matter that has come into the public domain following a court case in Killarney, County Kerry. Voter impersonation at a Kenmare polling station at the local and European elections in June 2024 was caught on CCTV. A Cahersiveen man pleaded guilty but avoided a conviction for electoral fraud after he used a polling card not in his name that went missing from a vehicle. It was even more extraordinary to learn, as every dog and divil in Kerry knows, that the defendant works for the Healy-Rae Plant Hire company. He was cited in court as a farmer and a contractor, but his employer, the Healy-Rae firm, was unusually not identified, even though he has worked for it for years. I called for a thorough investigation into the facts of the incident last week, and we still need clarity as to how this was quietly hushed up. It has made a mockery of our democracy. There have been no answers as to how this man got the polling card before he drove 40 miles from his home to vote in another town. He did not acquire it himself, the court was told, so who exactly gave it to him? The electors of Kerry, and indeed the rest of the country, deserve to know.

Another case in Kerry centres on potential criminal wrongdoing in the form of irregular supplementary registration. This case centres on allegations that, ahead of the May 2019 local elections, a garda officer in the Killarney electoral area stamped hundreds of supplementary voter registration forms without the applicants being physically present, which is a legal requirement. An Garda Síochána launched a formal investigation led by a superintendent from outside Kerry and a file was prepared. As of April 2024, GSOC had forwarded a file to the DPP, with a decision still pending. This happened over six years ago. When will this case be brought to a conclusion?

I have stated that these cases have made a mockery of our democracy. Illegal voter fraud strikes at the very heart of our democracy. When individuals or groups manipulate electoral rules or cast votes unlawfully, they undermine public trust in the fairness and legitimacy of our elections. Every fraudulent vote cancels out the voice of a lawful voter. The fallout from these cases will massively impact people who want to get elected to represent their electoral areas without fear of any undercurrent that does not reflect a level playing ground when it comes to these irregularities being committed. I won a seat in the 2014 local elections in Listowel by two votes, so to say, as was said in the court that day, that this does not really affect the results is totally wrong. I call on the Minister of State to clean up the whole voting process, to review the cases I have mentioned and to make sure that everything possible is done to eradicate this kind of behaviour.