Dublin Sinn Fein Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Fingal Electoral Registration Campaign Needs Resources - Gallagher

Published: 23 November, 2006

DUBLIN 15 Sinn Féin Councillor Felix Gallagher has welcomed the two week extension for the public to register to vote, but said that it must be matched by adequate resources if the tens of thousands of people who have been taken off the register are to get back on it. Cllr Gallagher called for the time extension earlier this month when it was revealed that 34,000 people were removed from the Fingal register.

Cllr Gallagher said "I called for this extension a number of weeks ago, therefore it is welcome but there may be a need for it to be extended further. There is definitely a need for additional resources and targeting of those who have been removed. There is little in terms of proactive moves coming from the Council and they seem dependent on political parties and community groups to knock doors and inform people that they have been removed. This is not acceptable. In Fingal, Councillors were only provided with a copy of the draft register on the 16 th November. My party colleagues in other areas had it a full ten days before me.

"This was also going to be a huge piece of work and we predicted that it would result in thousands being removed. It has a particularly negative effect on areas with already low-voter turnout. Minister Roche needs to do more to ensure that the Council has the capacity to do the job. He must also instruct the Council to provide the deletion lists as currently Fingal are refusing to provide this information. This would certainly make the job of identifying those excluded a lot easier."