Written answers

Tuesday, 4 May 2004

Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Prisoners' Voting Rights

8:00 pm

Photo of Jim O'KeeffeJim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 227: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform his views on the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that denying prisoners the right to vote was in breach of the European convention; and his proposals in this regard. [12455/04]

Photo of Michael McDowellMichael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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As I indicated previously, in reply to Question No. 175 of 7 April 2004 and Question No. 693 of 27 April 2004, the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, in a judgment adopted on 9 March 2004, found that a breach of Article 3 of Protocol 1 to the European Convention on Human Rights had occurred in a case taken by a prisoner in the United Kingdom.

The prisoner, who is serving a sentence of life imprisonment, had complained that, as a convicted prisoner, he was subject to a blanket ban on voting in elections. This was as a result of legislation in the UK, section 3 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, which prohibits a convicted person from voting in a parliamentary or local election during the term of his or her detention in a penal institution. There is no such legislation in this country which prohibits a sentenced person from voting.

The Supreme Court, while taking cognisance of the fact that there are no statutory provisions which prohibit a convicted prisoner from voting, has held that the State is under no constitutional obligation to facilitate prisoners in the exercise of that franchise.

I have, however, brought the recent ruling of the ECHR to the attention of both the Attorney General and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government who has primary responsibility for electoral legislation and I will consider the implications of the court's judgment in consultation with my colleagues.

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