Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has ordered Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to give him a full report on how it issued a warning to 19,000 people that they would be removed from the draft register of electors if they didn't turn up at an electoral court yesterday.
Warning notices of the intention to remove the names were rescinded at the last minute by the council on Monday. The notices were issued on December 22nd and the decision to rescind them came after legal advice.
Mr Roche yesterday criticised the council and its Fine Gael chairman, Cllr Eugene Regan, for the move and for ignoring department guidelines on updating the register. He described the council's approach as "inappropriate" and did not help the department's efforts to update the register.
"The chairman of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown was trumpeting that their system was better and effectively ignored guidelines sent out by the department. For reasons I still don't understand, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had departed from that and at the time unhelpful comments from the chairman of Dún Laoghaire to ignore the department's guidelines." Mr Roche has asked the council for an assurance that the objective of securing a more accurate and comprehensive electoral register for the county will be achieved.
Cllr Regan said yesterday that Mr Roche's criticism of the council could not mask the fact that his guidelines on the electoral register, whereby people are delisted automatically, are "fundamentally flawed".
"No one should be removed from the register, and no one has been removed from the register by this council, without first-hand information that that individual is no longer eligible to vote. This is a far cry from the Minster's approach as set out in his own guidelines," he said.
"The Minister's outburst against a council, which has possibly the most accurate electoral register in the country, are entirely misplaced." He claimed 30,000 voters would have been removed from the register in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown last December had the council operated under Mr Roche's guidelines.
"Events have vindicated the council's decision. Since then 11,000 people have been confirmed as eligible voters and it is expected that the status of the remaining 19,000, will be confirmed shortly," he said.
However Mr Roche said people who received letters should not have been put in that position. "I am annoyed about this. We have put a big effort into the voting register and pulled out all the stops."
Thousands of voters were on the verge of being removed from the draft electoral register last year as part of a Government campaign to update the list. However, efforts were made to ensure that as many as possible would be restored by November 25th.
This deadline was extended to mid-December and local authorities have until February to complete their register. Mr Roche stressed yesterday that people can also apply to be added on to a supplementary register up to 15 days before a general election.
A spokesman for Mr Roche said no other constituency in the country had issued such letters.