The Minister for Local Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 5 , 6 and 7 of the Electoral Act, 1963 (No. 19 of 1963), hereby makes the following Regulations as respects which pursuant to the said section 7, the Minister for Justice has been consulted, and pursuant to the said sections 5, 6 and 7 a draft has been approved by a resolution passed by each House of the Oireachtas:

1 Short title.

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Registration of Electors and Juries Acts (Specification of Dates) Regulations, 1963.

2 Revocations.

2. The following are hereby revoked—

(1) The Electoral Act (Alteration of Registration Rules) Order, 1933, (S.R. & O. 1933 No. 177);

(2) The Electoral Act (Alteration of Registration Rules) Order, 1940, (S.R. & O. 1940 No. 341);

(3) Articles 5 and 6 of, and forms E.A.1 to E.A.19 in the First Schedule, and the Second and Third Schedules to, the Electoral Order, 1946, (S.R. & O. 1946 No. 96);

(4) The Electoral Act (Alteration of Registration Rules) Order, 1948, ( S.I. No. 342 of 1948 );

(5) Articles 2 and paragraph (d) of article 3 of, and form E.A.19 in the Schedule to the Electoral (Amendment) Order, 1961, ( S.I. No. 27 of 1961 ).

3 Definitions.

3. —(1) In these Regulations—

"the county registrar" means the county registrar for the county, county borough or other area coterminous with or contained in a registration area or a person appointed or designated under article 17 to perform the duties of a county registrar;

"elector" means, as the context may require, a Dáil elector or a local government elector;

"jury district" has the same meaning as in the Juries Acts, 1927 to 1961;

"local authority" means the council of a county, the corporation of a county or other borough, the council of an urban district and the commissioners of a town;

"local electoral area" means the area or any of the areas by reference to which a local election is held;

"the Minister" means the Minister for Local Government;

"polling district" means a polling district in a scheme in force under section 22 of the Electoral Act, 1963 ;

"the register" means, as the context may require, the register of Dáil and local government electors or the register either of Dáil electors or of local government electors and, where the context so requires, includes the postal voters list;

"registration area" means an administrative county or county borough;

"registration authority" means the council of a county or the corporation of a county borough.

(2) A reference in these Regulations to "the specified date" means, in relation to any purpose, the date specified in the Second Schedule as the specified date for that purpose.

4 Specified dates and periods.

4.—(1) The qualifying date for a register shall be the 15th day of September in the year preceding the year in which the register comes into force.

(2) Each register shall come into force on the fourteenth day after its publication.

(3) The 15th day of April in the year in which a register comes into force shall be the date by reference to which a person's age shall be taken for the purposes of section 5 of the Electoral Act, 1963 .

(4) The period between the date of publication of the register and its coming into force shall be the period for ascertaining if any corrections in a register are necessary because of errors of a clerical or typographical nature.

(5) The date on or by reference to which any act or thing is required by these Regulations to be performed or done shall be the date specified for that purpose in the Second Schedule to these Regulations.

(6) Where the date on or by reference to which any act or thing is required by these Regulations to be performed or done falls on a Sunday or a public or bank holiday that act or thing shall be done on or by reference to the next day which is not a Sunday or a public or bank holiday.

5 Form and contents of the register.

5.—(1) The register shall be in the form R.F.1. and shall, as respects each polling district, contain the names of all persons who are entitled to be registered as electors on the qualifying date for the register.

(2) The names in the register for a registration area shall be arranged under polling districts and—

(a) if the registration area is a county borough, shall be arranged in street order unless the registration authority consider that having regard to the general character of any part of the area arrangement in street order for that part is inappropriate,

(b) if the registration area is an administrative county, shall be arranged alphabetically in townland order unless the registration authority consider that, having regard to the general character of any part of the area, arrangement in street order or in any other order is possible and convenient.

(3) The liability of a person to serve as a juror in respect of any jury district shall be identified by the placing of the letter "J" against such person's name at the place in the register at which the person is entered as an elector, notwithstanding that his qualification for serving as a juror may be in respect of other lands than those at which his address as stated in the register is situated.

6 Effect of register.

6. The parts of the register for the polling districts in a constituency, so far as they relate to Dáil electors, shall be the register of Dáil electors for that constituency, and the parts of the register for the polling districts in a local electoral area, so far as they relate to local government electors, shall be the register of local government electors for that area.

7 Postal voters list.

7. The registration authority shall prepare as part of the register a separate list in such form as may be directed by the Minister for the whole registration area, or, where the area includes all or part of more than one constituency, for each such constituency or part of a constituency in the area, of persons entitled to vote as postal voters without, however, removing the names of those voters from any other part of the register.

8 Preparation of draft register.

8.—(1) For the purpose of preparing the register, each registration authority shall make a house to house or other sufficient inquiry in their registration area, exclusive of boroughs and urban districts therein.

(2) The corporation of each borough which is not a county borough and the council of each urban district in a registration area shall make a house to house or other sufficient inquiry in the borough or urban district and, from the information so obtained, compile and furnish to the registration authority on or before the specified date in each year lists in the form of a draft register for the borough or urban district.

(3) The registration authority may for the purposes of their duties in relation to the preparation of a register require a person—

(a) to give any information in his possession which the registration authority may require;

(b) to produce a certificate of birth, or, if that is not practicable or convenient, to make a statutory declaration as to his age;

where a declaration is so required, any fees payable in connection therewith shall be paid by the authority requiring it.

(4) The registration authority shall, during office hours, allow any person to inspect and take a copy of any such declaration.

(5) The registration authority may require the superintendent registrar of births and deaths to furnish lists or other information in connection with deaths of persons in the district of the superintendent registrar. Where the superintendent registrar is an individual, payment for such lists or information shall be made by the registration authority at a rate approved from time to time by the Minister and in any other case no payment shall be made.

(6) From the information obtained under this article the registration authority shall prepare and publish a draft register on or before the specified date in each year.

9 Persons to whom draft register is to be sent.

9.—(1) The registration authority shall, as soon as may be after the publication of the draft register, send a copy of the draft register—

(a) for the registration area—to the Minister, the county registrar and each head postmaster in the area;

(b) for a constituency—to each member of Dáil Éireann for that constituency and each member of Seanad Éireann residing in that constituency;

(2) The registration authority shall send with each copy of the draft register sent in pursuance of the preceding sub-article to each person other than the Minister a supply of forms for the making of claims for corrections in the draft register.

(3) The registration authority shall supply to the county registrar such further number of copies of the draft register for a registration area as he shall require for the purposes of his duties as county registrar.

10 Claims for corrections in draft register.

10.—(1) Any person may claim to have a correction made in a draft register, including in particular a claim to have the name of a person added to or deleted from the draft.

(2) A claim under this article shall be sent to the registration authority on or before the specified date.

(3) The registration authority and the county registrar shall, on the application of any person, supply forms on which claims may be made.

(4) The registration authority shall prepare and publish on or before the specified date a list of claims in the form R.F.2.

(5) Any person may claim to have a correction made in respect of the entry in or deletion from the register of a person whose name appears in the list of claims, by sending a notice to the registration authority not later than the specified date.

(6) The registration authority shall, not later than the date specified for the publication of the list of claims, send copies of the said list to the county registrar together with the original claims. The registration authority shall also forward to the county registrar any notice sent to them under sub-article (5) as soon as it is received by them.

(7) The registration authority or the county registrar, as may be appropriate, shall allow any person during office hours to inspect and take extracts from a claim or may supply copies of a claim.

11 Consideration of claims by county registrar.

11.—(1) The county registrar shall consider all claims of which notice has been given to him in accordance with article 10 and all objections to corrections referred to him under article 14.

(2) Before considering a claim for the deletion of a person's name from the draft register the county registrar shall, except where he is satisfied that the person is dead, give not less than five clear days notice to the claimant (if he is not the registration authority or a person whose duty it is to make the house to house or other inquiry on which the draft register is based) and to the person in respect of whom the claim is made, of the time and place at which the claim will be considered by him.

(3) If the county registrar is satisfied that a claim, other than a claim for the deletion of a person's name from the draft register, should not be allowed without inquiry he shall give not less than five clear days notice to the claimant (if he is not the registration authority or a person whose duty it is to make the house to house or other inquiry on which the draft register is based) and to any other person appearing to him to be interested of the time and place at which the claim will be considered by him.

(4) The county registrar may require any officer of a registration authority or of a corporation of a borough which is not an urban district or a council of an urban district in the registration area and any person whose duty it is to make the house to house or other inquiry on which the draft register is based to attend at such times and at such places as he may consider necessary for the purpose of enabling him to decide any claim or objection or other matter arising out of his consideration of the draft register.

(5) The county registrar may, on consideration of any claim or objection or other matter, require that the evidence tendered by any person should be given on oath and may administer an oath for the purpose.

(6) On the consideration of any claim or objection or other matter by the county registrar, any person interested may appear and be heard either in person or by any other person on his behalf.

12 Enquiries and claims by county registrar.

12.—(1) The county registrar may require any person to give any information in his possession which the county registrar may require for the purposes of his duties under these Regulations.

(2) The county registrar, if it appears to him that the draft register should be corrected in any respect, may himself make a claim for the correction, and any such claim may be made notwithstanding the fact that the time for sending a claim under article 10 may have expired.

(3) Any such claim need not be published but otherwise shall be considered in the same manner and on the same conditions as a claim under article 10.

13 Correction of draft register.

13. The registration authority shall, not later than ten days before the date specified for the completion of the return by the county registrar of the endorsed list of claims, make any corrections by way of the removal of duplicate entries (subject to any expression of choice by the persons affected by those entries), the deletion of the names of persons who are dead, or the placing of marks or the correction of marks placed against the name of an elector, or otherwise as may be necessary in order to secure that—

(a) a person is not registered more than once as a Dáil elector,

(b) a person is not registered more than once as a local government elector in a county borough, borough, urban district or town or in an administrative county exclusive of any borough, urban district or town,

(c) a person is not indicated more than once in the draft register for a registration area as a person qualified and liable to serve as a juror, and

(d) the draft register is complete and accurate.

14 Objections to corrections.

14. Where the registration authority propose to make any correction in the draft register under article 13 otherwise than for the propose of correcting an inaccuracy not involving a change of substance or deleting the name of a person who is dead, they shall give notice to any persons affected by the correction of their right of objection to the correction, and, if necessary, of being heard by the county registrar with respect thereto.

15 Return of corrected list of claims.

15.—(1) Immediately on completing his decisions on claims and on any objections under article 14, relating to the part of the list of claims for a local electoral area or such smaller area as may be found convenient, the county registrar shall send to the registration authority a certified copy of that part of the list endorsed to show the effect of his decisions.

(2) The county registrar shall send all the parts of the list of claims making up the complete list of claims for the registration area, endorsed as aforesaid, to the registration authority not later than the specified date.

(3) The registration authority shall, on receiving part of the list of claims from the county registrar, forthwith make any corrections in the draft register necessary to give effect to his decisions and shall send notice of the decision on each claim or objection to the claimant or objector (other than the county registrar or a claimant or objector who is a person whose duty it is to make the house to house or other inquiry on which the register is based) and to any other person appearing to them to be interested, together with an intimation of the right of appeal against the decision to the Circuit Court under section 8 of the Electoral Act, 1963 .

16 Publication of register.

16.—(1) The draft register corrected in accordance with articles 13 and 15 shall form the register.

(2) The registration authority shall publish the register on the specified date in each year.

(3) Where the registration authority for any reason fail to publish on the specified date the register for their area or any part thereof, the registration authority shall publish the register as soon as possible after the specified date.

(4) In addition to publishing the register in the manner specified in article 19 of these Regulations the registration authority shall publish the register by sending a copy of the register—

(a) for the registration area—to the Minister, the county registrar and each head postmaster in the area;

(b) for a constituency—to each member of Dáil Éireann for that constituency and to each member of Seanad Éireann residing in the constituency;

17 Absence, incapacity or vacancy in office of county registrar.

17. If the office of county registrar is vacant or the county registrar is prevented by illness or other reasonable cause from carrying out his functions under these Regulations the said functions shall be performed during the period of the vacancy or prevention by any person appointed by the county registrar with the approval of the Minister or, if no such appointment is made, by a person designated for the purpose by the Minister.

18 Inspection and fees for copies of registers.

18.—(1) The registration authority and the county registrar shall allow any person during office hours to inspect for purposes connected with the registration of electors, a copy of the register or of the draft register.

(2) The fee for a copy of the register or draft register or any part thereof shall be two shillings and sixpence plus the sum of three-pence for each one hundred or part of one hundred by which the number of persons in the register or draft register or part thereof exceeds one hundred.

(3) The registration authority shall, on payment of the said fee, supply to any person a copy of the register or draft register or the appropriate part thereof.

(4) No fee shall he charged by the registration authority for supplying on request—

(a) one copy of the register for each constituency or part of a constituency or for a local electoral area, as the case may be, in their registration area, to

(i) the local agent of each duly nominated candidate at a presidential election,

(ii) each candidate duly nominated for the constituency at a Dáil election, and

(iii) each candidate duly nominated for the local electoral area at a local election, and

(b) such number of copies of the register for each constituency or part of a constituency or for a local electoral area, as the case may be, as the returning officer at a presidential election, a Dáil election, a local election or a referendum requires for the purpose of his duties as returning officer.

19 Publication of documents.

19. Where any document is required by these Regulations to be published the document may be published in such manner as the authority responsible for publishing consider desirable for the purpose of bringing the contents of the document to the notice of persons interested and in particular the document may be published by making copies of so much of the document as the said authority consider appropriate, available for public inspection (after consultation, where necessary, with the authority having charge of the building) in the offices of the registration authority, the offices of the county registrar, post offices, garda stations, dispensaries and such other places as the said authority consider appropriate.

20 Mode of sending notices, etc.

20. Any claim, objection, notice or other document which is required under these Regulations to be sent to any person shall be sufficiently sent if sent by post to the address of that person as appearing on the draft register or register, or if there is no such address to his last known address or place of abode.

21 Specification of dates for purposes of Juries Act, 1927 .

21. In subsection (1) of section 13 of the Juries Act, 1927 , (No. 23 of 1927) as amended by section 2 of the Juries Act, 1945 , (No. 24 of 1945) a reference to the 15th day of December shall be substituted for each reference to the 24th day of November.

Article 5

R.F.1

FIRST SCHEDULE

Specified forms

in force from

..................................... , 19.. to .............................. , 19.......

Constituency ............................................................ ............................................................ ...................................

*County ............................................................ ............................................................ ...........................................

*This line should be inserted only where the constituency extends into more than one county.

Polling District ............................................................ ............................................................ .................................

District Electoral Division (or ward or registration unit) ............................................................ ......................

County (Borough) Electoral Area ............................................................ ............................................................ .

Urban (Town) Electoral Area ............................................................ ............................................................ ........

The following letters against a person's name mean that the person—

(C)—may not vote in respect of that entry at a county council election;

(D)—may not vote in respect of that entry at local elections;

(J)—is liable to serve as a juror;

(L)—may vote in respect of that entry at local elections only;

(P)—may vote by post only.

BEFORE USING THIS REGISTER, CHECK IF THERE IS A SUPPLEMENT CONTAINING CORRECTIONS.

................................................ Registration Authority

................................................ Address

................................................ Date

No.

Name and Address (abode of non-resident occupier)

R.F.2

Article 10

REGISTRATION OF ELECTORS

LIST OF CLAIMS

Constituency ............................................................ .... *(Remainder in ............................................................ ....)

*Where a constituency is situated in more than one county the name of the county or counties where the remainder is situated should be inserted here.

The following letters against a person's name mean that the person—

(C)—may not vote in respect of that entry at a county council election;

(D)—may not vote in respect of that entry at local elections;

(J)—is liable to serve as a juror;

(L)—may vote in respect of that entry at local elections only;

(P)—may vote by post only.

ANY OBJECTIONS TO A CLAIM IN THIS LIST SHOULD BE LODGED WITH THE REGISTRATION AUTHORITY AT THE ADDRESS UNDER ON OR BEFORE (Insert here the last date for making claims in respect of names appearing in the list of claims).

No. and polling district letter

Name and address (Abode of non-resident occupier)

Nature of claim

County (Borough) Electoral Area of................................... †(Remainder in the constituency of

..........................................................).

District electoral division (or ward or registration unit) ............................................................ .......

Urban District of ............................................................ ....................

Town of ............................................................ .............

______________________________________________________________________________

....................................................... Registration Authority

....................................................... Address

....................................................... Date

†Where a local electoral area is situated in more than one constituency the name of the constituency or constituencies where the remainder is situated should be inserted here.

SECOND SCHEDULE

Specified dates

Purpose	Relevant article	Date
1. Qualifying date .. .. ..	Article 4	15th September in the year preceeding the year in which the register comes into force.
2. Last date for sending by urban authorities of lists of electors to registration authority	Article 8	8th October.
3. Publication of draft register .. ..	Article 8	1st December.
4. Last date for making claims ..	Article 10	15th January.
5. Publication of list of claims .. ..	Article 10	23rd January.
6. Last date for making claims for corrections in respect of names appearing in list of claims	Article 10	30th January.
7. Completion of return by county registrar of endorsed list of claims	Article 15	28th February.
8. Publication of register .. ..	Article 16	1st April.
9. Coming into force of register .. ..	Article 4	Fourteenth day after publication of register.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for

Local Government this Twentieth day of August, 1963.

NEIL T. BLANEY,

Minister for Local Government.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

These Regulations set out the procedure to be followed and the principal forms to be used in the registration of persons as Dáil and local government electors.