Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent)
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457. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will introduce pre-ballot day voting and foreign postal voting for those registered voters who have emigrated or who are abroad on the day of voting, in this Government's lifetime or in the lifetime of the 32nd Dáil Éireann, should he be elected to the same post; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2167/16]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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In order to be able to vote at elections and referendums, a person's name must be entered in the register of electors for a constituency in the State in which the person ordinarily resides. Provision is made in the Electoral Act 1992 for persons to be deemed to be ordinarily resident if they intend to resume residence within eighteen months after giving it up. I have no current plans to amend this provision generally; however it may be subject to consideration in the analysis that I am undertaking of the issues that would arise in the extension of the franchise at Presidential elections to citizens resident outside the State. The Convention on the Constitution recommended in its Fifth Report that the Constitution be amended to give citizens resident outside the State the right to vote in Presidential elections. In considering a response to this recommendation the Government decided that it would be necessary to analyse the full range of issues that would arise in any significant extension of the franchise, before any decision could be made on the holding of a referendum. The Government acknowledges that such an extension of the franchise might be welcomed by many in the diaspora. However, it would be challenging to introduce and to manage and a range of issues arise for analysis in that context, including policy, legal and practical issues. I am undertaking the necessary analysis in co-operation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Minister for Diaspora Affairs.

There is no provision in electoral law to allow for pre-ballot day voting other than in the context of postal voting or voting on islands. Postal voting is provided for in electoral law in respect of certain categories of person who are entered in the register of electors - whole-time members of the Defence Forces; members of An Garda Síochána; Irish diplomats serving abroad and their spouses or civil partners; electors living at home who are unable to vote because of a physical illness or a physical disability; electors whose occupation, service or employment makes it likely that they will be unable to vote in person at their local polling station on polling day and full-time students registered at their home who are living elsewhere while attending an educational institution in the State; certain election staff employed at the poll outside the constituency where they reside; and electors who because of the circumstances of their detention in prison pursuant to an order of a court are likely to be unable to go in person on polling day to vote.

While electoral law is subject to ongoing review, I have no proposals at present to introduce pre-ballot day voting or to extend existing arrangements for postal voting. In responding to the recommendation of the Convention on the Constitution in their fourth report, that there should be greater access to postal voting, the Government proposed that an Electoral Commission be tasked in due course with considering the issue and advising in detail on the electoral and operational implications, including costs, of implementing change in this area.