Many homes received no booklet

Many homes still had not received their information booklet on the abortion referendum yesterday - the day before polling day.

According to the calls received by the Referendum Commission, delivery problems seemed to centre on the Dublin area but also included some areas in Donegal, Limerick and Westmeath.

This newspaper also heard of delivery problems in parts of Sligo, Mayo, Wicklow and Drogheda.

An Post spokesman Mr John Foley said the postal workers finished delivering all 1.35 million booklets to houses yesterday. Anyone who was going to receive a booklet would have received it by then, he said.

Delivery of the booklets was based on a directory of addresses which was updated last year, he said. New housing estates may not be included in this list, so this would explain why these homeowners did not receive booklets.

However, many householders who did not receive booklets lived in well-established areas.

One Sligo woman who had lived in her house for over 40 years still had not received her booklet by yesterday afternoon.

Mr Foley said An Post had expected to receive all booklets by Sunday, February 24th and had planned to have deliveries completed by last Monday.

However, it did not receive all booklets on the expected date and because they were delivered in tranches to An Post offices, they were distributed on a phased basis.

Last-minute deliveries were made to homes in Kilmainham, Rathgar, Bray, Tullow and Kilbrittain in Cork earlier this week, he said. A spokeswoman for the Referendum Commission said it was a "miracle" that the commission had managed to deliver so many booklets in such a short space of time.

The referendum date was announced on February 1st by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey. He appointed the Referendum Commission on February 8th but the secretariat was not in place until February 11th. "A 15-page booklet had to be drafted, written, approved, legally checked, printed and delivered between then and now," the spokeswoman said.

A spokesman for Mr Dempsey said there was no delay in appointing the Referendum Commission. He said the Minister had to go through a legal process and this was done as promptly as possible. By yesterday afternoon, the Referendum Commission had received complaints from people in Glenageary, Rathmines, Rathgar, Ranelagh, Lucan, Artane, Inchicore, Castleknock and Clondalkin. The Irish Times heard of delivery problems in Churchtown, Ballinteer, and Blackrock. Outside Dublin, householders in Donegal, Wicklow, Limerick, Mayo and Westmeath had not received their booklets.

The spokeswoman said the Referendum Commission had delivered 400,000 copies of the information booklet to public facilities such as citizen information centres, libraries, Bus Éireann centres, large Garda stations, Superquinn stores and Social Welfare offices.

The document could also be read on the Referendum Commission's website www.refcom.ie

Speaking on RTÉ Radio yesterday, Mr Tom Morgan, Referendum Commission secretary, said "more time would have helped" but commission staff had done as much as they could in the time available. He said the Commission would be submitting a report to the Minister for the Environment after the referendum.