Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Christopher O'Sullivan, to the House. He is most welcome to Seanad Éireann.

Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael)
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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.

Malcolm Noonan (Green Party)
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Before I ask the Minister of State to respond, I ask the Senator to be careful about naming individuals in his contribution.

A Aire, tá fáilte romhat.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising the general issue of fraudulent voting. He will understand and will not be surprised to hear that I cannot comment on individual cases, but I will make some general comments because I agree with him that fraudulent behaviour in the voting process strikes at the core of democracy. There are other issues as well. We all, as the Senator said, have put ourselves up for election. It is a stressful time, including for our families and our friends, and one does so in the hope that we can trust the electoral system. If there is fear that fraud may be carried our or that votes are cast inappropriately, it undermines that. It undermines not only us as candidates but also democracy in general and means that people's voices, essentially, are not heard in the way they should be. I just wanted to make that general comment at the start and say that I cannot, as the Senator knows well, comment on individual cases.

The primary role of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in electoral matters is to provide an appropriate policy and legislative framework for a modern and efficient electoral system. Within that framework, local authorities, in their capacity as registration authorities, are responsible for the management and maintenance of the electoral register, and returning officers are responsible for all matters in connection with the actual conduct of elections and referendums. Electoral law provides for significant measures relating to voter identification and the prevention of personation in order to counteract voter fraud and to protect the integrity of the register. Substantial reforms to the Electoral Acts in 2022 brought about a significant modernisation of the electoral registration process, including the introduction of rolling registration and the use of PPSNs in the application process to enhance the integrity of the electoral register.Local authorities are engaged in detailed work to improve the data quality of their electoral registers in advance of migration to a new national system in 2026. Electoral legislation provides that at the polling station, the returning officer or the presiding officer may, or if required by a personation agent shall, request any person applying for a ballot paper to produce a specified identification document. If a person fails to produce the identification required, they are not permitted to vote. In guidance prepared by the Department in advance of each poll, it is recommended that at least one in four voters should be asked for the required identification.

Electoral law also provides for a range of offences and penalties in this regard. Section 134 of the Electoral Act 1992 provides for the offence of personation. Section 35 of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2004 provides that it is an offence to take or interfere with a polling information card or to use a polling information card at a polling station that is not addressed to the person presenting it. There are appropriate penalties for both offences. Similar offences are provided for in relation to all polls. The prosecution of offences is a matter for An Garda Síochána and the Director of Public Prosecutions. It is not appropriate for me as Minister of State to comment on a specific case or cases.

Separate to the role of returning officers and local authorities, An Coimisiún Toghcháin, which was established on 9 February 2023 and is independent in the performance of its functions, is tasked with carrying out post-electoral event reviews, oversight of the electoral register, conducting research on electoral issues and making recommendations on same. In combination with wider reforms of electoral registration, the work of An Coimisiún will strengthen our electoral system as a whole and help us to anticipate and respond to the challenges we face in an ever evolving electoral environment.

I have set out the procedures. There are reforms and reviews. The Senator is right; electoral fraud cuts to the core of our democracy and damages it. It should of course be taken seriously. Anywhere fraud is happening, those cases should be taken seriously and there should be serious penalties for anyone involved.

Malcolm Noonan (Green Party)
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I remind the Senator to make general comments in relation to electoral form. As the Minister of State has outlined, it is not appropriate for him to reference specific cases.

Mike Kennelly (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. I accept it in general terms of policy and decision-making. Electoral fraud is not a victimless crime and it is totally wrong. This guy was not even asked for identification. To say we are running proper registration on voting day is wrong. We do not know how many of these cases exist. I ask the Minister of State and the Minister for local government to review what we have in store. Otherwise, we are preventing the next crop of young people who want to represent their areas from doing so because if this continues, no one will seek election given that it is not a level playing pitch. We know it is going on. If we can do anything today to wake up local government and have a policy driven to stop it, that is all I wish for. If the Minister of State could do that, it would be a good day's work.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Senator about the impact of fraudulent voting. It strikes to the core of our democracy, has a serious impact on the candidates who put themselves forward and adds to the stresses associated with election time. We all understand that. There has to be trust in the process, and there is. If there is not, it undermines everything.

I disagree, however, in that I do not think it is happening as widely and at the scale the Senator asserted. I commend polling clerks and officers at polling stations who give up their days, whether adjudicating at polling stations or at the counts later on. They do incredible work in local authorities across the country. They are vigilant. I do not think it is happening at the scale the Senator asserted but I agree with him that where it happens, the consequences should be serious. If it is blatant and obvious and someone has been caught red-handed, I agree there should be serious consequences for the reasons the Senator outlined. It may deter people from getting involved in politics in the future, and it is a tough job as it is.

I appreciate the Senator raising the issue. I cannot comment on individual cases for obvious reasons but I accept the general tenor of his argument.