Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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346. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his plans for voter registration for the 2017-2018 register of electors. [27086/16]

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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347. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he will report on the assistance his Department will provide to local authorities in voter registration for the 2017/2018 register of electors. [27087/16]

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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348. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the steps he will take to ensure new citizens are made aware of the need to have their citizenship status accurately recorded on the electoral register in order to avail of their full voting rights in view of the fact that local authorities will be preparing the 2017/2018 register of electors in the coming months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27088/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 346 to 348, inclusive, together.

In law, the preparation of the register of electors is a matter for each local authority as a cooperation of the public, the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the register. The draft register is published on 1 November each year and is generally available for examination at post offices, Garda stations and local authority offices and on-line at www.checktheregister.ieup to 25 November. In support of activity by local authorities in preparing the 2017-2018 register of electors my Department will , during November, promote greater awareness of the register through promotional posters, newspaper advertisements and on-line and social-media campaigns. People will be invited in this campaign to check the draft register during November to make sure that they are correctly registered and to bring errors or omissions in the draft to the attention of the local authority.

A person who becomes an Irish citizen is entitled under the Electoral Act 1992 to be registered as a Dáil, Presidential or European elector in a constituency if he or she has reached the age of 18 and was on the qualifying date – 1 September in the year prior to the register coming into force – an Irish citizen ordinarily resident in that constituency. The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2015 provided for amendment of the Electoral Act 1992 to enable persons who become Irish citizens after the qualifying date for the register of electors to apply for entry in the supplement to the register of electors. They no longer have to wait until the following register is being prepared.

My Department works closely with the Citizenship Division of the Department of Justice and Equality to arrange for the provision of information leaflets about voter registration to new Irish citizens. These leaflets, which are included in the information pack that every new Irish citizen receives at their citizenship ceremony, detail the steps required to change citizenship status on the register of electors. My Department has supplied 7,000 such information leaflets to cover citizenship ceremonies in 2016.