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Mr. John Gormley T.D., Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, today (27 June 2008) published the Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008.

01/07/08

 “This Bill contains important provisions governing the conduct of future Dáil, European and local elections,” said Minister Gormley. “It also revises the procedures to be followed by a Constituency Commission so that the Commission can start work at an earlier stage on updating Dáil and European Parliament constituencies following publication of census data. I look forward to debate on the Bill in both the Dáil and Seanad.”

The purpose of the Bill is to revise Dáil and European Parliament constituencies, to provide for the number of members to be elected for these constituencies, to amend the law relating to the Constituency Commission and to provide revised alternative procedures for nomination of non-party candidates at European Parliament and local elections.

The Bill revises Dáil and European Parliament constituencies by providing for implementation of the recommendations of the Constituency Commission’s Report on Dáil and European Parliament Constituencies 2007 (Prn. A7/1347). The Commission was established under the Electoral Act 1997 to report, in light of the results of Census 2006, on the constituencies for the election of members to Dáil Eireann and the European Parliament. The Commission’s report is available at www.constituency-commission.ie.

The Bill also revises the procedures to be followed by Constituency Commissions.  While most of the existing law in this area is being retained, the main change is that, in future, Commissions will be established on publication by the Central Statistics Office, following a Census of Population, of the Census Report setting out the preliminary result of the Census in respect of the total population of the State; the Commission will have to report as soon as may be after publication by that Office of the Census Report setting out the final result of the Census in respect of the total population of the State and, in any event, not later than 3 months after such publication.  Previously, Commissions had to await final results before starting work.

Finally, the Bill provides for two alternative procedures for the nomination of non-party candidates at European Parliament and local elections – by way of obtaining assentors to the nomination or by way of lodging a deposit.  Similar procedures were enacted for, and implemented at, last year’s general election.

ENDS


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