Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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1429. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the unilateral decision by local authorities to alter the layout and chronology of the layout of the 2018-2019 electoral register and the local authorities' obligation to provide the register in a usable format for public representatives; if his Department has been involved in the decision to change the layout of the way in which the register is presented; the instructions his Department provides to local authorities in respect of this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36962/18]

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The preparation of the Register of Electors is a matter for each local registration authority. It is their duty to ensure, as far as possible and with the co-operation of the public, the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the Register. The focus of my Department's work in relation to the Register is to support and assist registration authorities in ensuring that an appropriate legislative framework is in place.  

The statutory provisions relating to the form and content of the Register are contained in Rule 2 of the Second Schedule of the Electoral Act 1992. It is provided there that if the registration area is a city, the names should be arranged in street order unless the registration authority consider that doing so would be inappropriate, having regard to the general character of any part of the area. If the registration area is an administrative county, the requirement is to arrange the names alphabetically in townland order unless the authority considers that arrangement in street or any other order is possible and convenient, having regard to the general character of any part of the area.

I understand that the Dublin registration authorities have published the 2018/2019 Register in street order, where appropriate, but by name alphabetically rather than by house number in each such street. However, in order to be of assistance to the councillors and Oireachtas members in their areas, I understand that the registration authorities have also sent to them a soft copy of the Register, which enables them to sort the register information for each street into house number rather than alphabetic order.