Call for those on holiday at elections to get vote

THOUSANDS OF people who are abroad on holidays or business during general election campaigns should be allowed to vote, an Oireachtas committee has proposed.

The recommendation will be one of a number of significant changes to the electoral register to be proposed by the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Committee.

Large numbers of people miss out on voting in every election because they are abroad on polling day, said committee chairman and Fianna Fáil TD Sean Fleming, who said they should qualify for absentee ballots.

The committee has agreed that a National Electoral Office should be established to take command away from local authorities for keeping an accurate voting register. Errors in the past were due to widely-differing rules being operated by the 34 responsible local authorities.

Mr Fleming said some of the blame lay with local authority staff who were paid extra fees to keep the register up to date, and then failed to do the work.

TDs divided on party lines on whether people from rural Ireland but living in major cities should be able to keep voting in their home constituency.

Fianna Fáil Sligo-Leitrim TD Eamon Scanlon said "thousands" of such people "go home for every election to vote, and we should be encouraging them".

Some local authorities strike off people from the voting register if they are working away from home, even if they come back every weekend "to play for GAA clubs or whatever".

Labour Cork South Central TD Ciaran Lynch said: "The notion that you can vote in whatever constituency you like is not on. You should vote where you live."