Electoral (Amendment) Act 2015

Candidates in Seanad university constituency entitled to free postage

1. (1) The following is inserted after section 28 of the Act of 1937:

“28A. (1) Each candidate at a Seanad election in a university constituency shall, subject to section 61 of the Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Act 2011 , be entitled to send, free of any charge for postage, to each person whose name is on the register of electors for the constituency or to any combination of such persons, one postal communication containing matter relating to the election only and not exceeding 50 grammes in weight.

(2) (a) Where at a Seanad election, any person is a candidate in more than one university constituency he or she shall not be entitled to exercise the right of free postage conferred by this section in respect of more than one such constituency.

(b) A candidate to whom paragraph (a) applies, or his or her agent, shall indicate in writing to the relevant postal service provider the constituency in respect of which he or she wishes to exercise his or her right to free postage under this section.

(3) A candidate shall not be entitled to exercise the right of free postage conferred by this section before he or she is validly nominated, unless he or she has given such security as may be required by the relevant postal service provider for the payment of the postage on all communications sent by him or her under this section in case he or she does not eventually become nominated.”.

(2) Subsection (2) (inserted by section 62(2)(b) of the Act of 2011) of section 5 of the Act of 1937 is amended by substituting “section 28A” for “section 25”.

(3) Section 25 (inserted by section 166 (a) of the Electoral Act 1992 ) of the Act of 1937 is amended in subsection (1) by deleting “57,”.

(4) Section 61(1) of the Act of 2011 is amended in the definition of “relevant postal service provider” by substituting for paragraph (i) the following:

“(i) section 28A of the Seanad Electoral (University Members) Act 1937 ;”.

(5) In this section—

“Act of 1937” means Seanad Electoral (University Members) Act 1937 ;

“Act of 2011” means Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Act 2011 .