Electoral Reform Act 2022

Amendment of section 11 of Act of 1992

84. Section 11 of the Act of 1992 is amended—

(a) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (2):

“(2) Subject to sections 7, 8, 9 and 10, a person shall be entitled to be registered as an elector on or after the day on which that person reaches 18 years, including where such day falls during the period beginning on the last day on which applications for entry in the register in respect of a specific Dáil, presidential, European or local election or a referendum can be received and ending on polling day, provided that any application is received by the registration authority before the closing date.”,

(b) in subsection (4)(a)—

(i) by the deletion of “on the qualifying date”,

(ii) by the substitution of “applications” for “claims”,

(c) in subsection (5), by the deletion of “on the qualifying date,”,

(d) in subsection (6), by the deletion of “on the qualifying date,”, and

(e) by the insertion of the following subsections after subsection (6):

“(7) (a) Where a person is not ordinarily resident at any premises at the time of making an application under subsection (1) or (2) of section 15D, as the case may be, he or she may make a declaration of circumstances to the registration authority in accordance with this subsection setting out his or her reason for making an application to be registered at an address provided in the declaration of circumstances.

(b) A declaration of circumstances shall be completed in accordance with Rule 37 of Part VII of the Second Schedule in a form directed by the Minister and shall include:

(i) the name of the person;

(ii) (I) an address to which correspondence can be delivered, or

(II) confirmation that the person is willing to collect correspondence from a specified office of the relevant registration authority;

(iii) the date of the declaration;

(iv) the address of, or which is nearest to, a place where the person commonly spends a substantial part of his or her time (whether during the day or at night) and at which the person wishes to be considered ordinarily resident;

(v) the reason for the application by the person under this subsection.

(c) If the registration authority is satisfied that there is no other address at which the person would be more appropriately registered, the person shall be deemed ordinarily resident at the address provided in the declaration of circumstances as the address at which he or she wishes to be considered ordinarily resident.

(d) A declaration of circumstances made under this subsection may be withdrawn by the elector who made it at any time and, shall be deemed to be withdrawn, where—

(i) he or she submits a new declaration of circumstances, or

(ii) he or she submits an application to a registration authority under section 15D(2)—

(I) to be entered on the register in a different registration area, or

(II) to update details of his or her entry on the register in the same registration area.

(8) (a) The Minister shall—

(i) not later than 3 years after the coming into operation of section 84 of the Electoral Reform Act 2022, carry out or cause to be carried out a review of the operation of that subsection, and

(ii) not later than 12 months after the commencement of the review, publish a report of the findings resulting from the review and of the conclusions drawn from the findings and arrange for a copy of the report to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

(b) In carrying out a review under this subsection, the Minister or such person as the Minister shall cause to carry out the review, shall consult with the registration authorities and such other persons as the Minister or person carrying out the review considers appropriate for the purposes of the review.”.