Durkan queries election of some TDs to Dáil

There were TDs who should never have been elected to the Dáil, Fine Gael environment spokesman Bernard Durkan claimed yesterday.

He said that he appreciated the need to have the purest and simplest form of democracy.

"However, I am not sure that everybody should have the right to be elected. There are serious reasons why some people who were elected in this country in the not-too-distant past should not have been elected.

"I do not care how many people supported them, or assented to their election. I still believe it was wrong that they were elected. It is wrong to make a decision that allows people with criminal records, for example, to be elected. The election of such people does nothing for society or for local and national politics."

He was speaking during a debate on the Electoral (Amendment) Bill, which Minister for the Environment Dick Roche said represented a response to a Supreme Court judgment.

The judgment, he said, dealt with the assentor requirements for the nomination of Dáil candidates who were not members of registered political parties.

"The net impact of the judgment is that no statutory mechanism was in place to regulate the nomination of such candidates standing for election. This must be addressed before this year's general election."

The Bill, said Mr Roche, provided for two alternative ways of regulating the nomination of Dáil candidates who did not possess certificates of political affiliation.

It provided, first, for assents requiring the completion of statutory declarations by 30 assentors in the constituency which might be witnessed by a commissioner of oaths, a peace commissioner, a notary public, a garda or a local authority official.

Second, the Bill provided for a process, whereby the candidate, or someone acting on his or her behalf, could lodge a deposit of €500 with the returning officer in advance of the deadline for the receipt of nominations. "I regard the amount of €500 as reasonable. It is significantly less than the £300 enacted in 1992, as updated by reference to inflation, and is dramatically less than the figure of £100 in the 1920s.

"Under the new Section 48, the deposit will be returned to successful candidates, to those receiving votes in excess of a quarter of the quota, and in certain other circumstances, such as the withdrawal of candidature or death. Otherwise, the deposit will forfeited."

Padraic McCormack (FG, Galway West) said the Minister should take on board Fine Gael's proposal that people should be automatically registered on reaching 18 years of age. "This would offer a simple solution to the difficulties we are experiencing with the register."

John Gormley (Green Party, Dublin South East) said that if one looked around Dublin city, there were 48 sheet billboards advertising certain candidates.

"I come from a party which does not accept corporate donations. How are we expected to contest an election with people who are funded up to the gills, sometimes by developers, and others, who have vested interests?" He said the three weeks before the election was no longer what it used to be.

"We are now into almost five-year election cycles where the gun is sounded once we get into the House. This is as a result of people trying to spend money before the three-week period commences. It is spend, spend, spend. Looking at the glossy leaflets, bus shelters and billboards, I ask how much is being spent?

"I calculate some candidates must have spent approximately €100,000 in the past few months. How are we supposed to compete against that? Where are they getting the money?"