Electoral Act, 1963

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Registration duties.

7.—(1) It shall be the duty of each council of a county and corporation of a county borough to prepare and publish the register of electors in accordance with regulations made by the Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Justice, and references in this Part of this Act to the registration authority shall be construed accordingly.

(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section, regulations under this section may provide for all or any of the following matters:

(a) furnishing by the corporations of boroughs which are not county boroughs and the councils of urban districts, to the councils of the counties in which such boroughs and urban districts are situate, of lists in the form of a draft register for the boroughs and urban districts,

(b) identification, in draft registers, lists of claimants and registers of electors, of persons who are jurors and specification therein of places in respect of which persons are to be indicated as jurors,

(c) making to and deciding by county registrars of claims for and objections to the entry of names in draft registers,

(d) appointment of deputies for such registrars,

(e) notification of decisions with respect to such claims and objections to the registration authority concerned,

(f) the form of draft registers and registers of electors,

(g) the inquiries to be made by the registration authorities,

(h) the date of publication of registers of electors,

(i) failure to publish registers of electors,

(j) the fees to be charged for copies of draft registers and registers of electors,

(k) specification of the substituted dates referred to in subsection (6) of this section.

(3) If any person, having been duly required pursuant to regulations under this section to give any information in his possession which the registration authority or county registrar may require for the purposes of their duties, fails to give the information or gives false information, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.

(4) An elector shall be entered in the postal voters list if he is—

(a) a member of the Garda Síochána, or

(b) a whole time member of the Defence Forces (as defined in paragraph (b) of subsection (3) of section 5 of this Act).

(5) The registration authority shall, within such period after publication of the register of electors as may be specified by regulations under this section, ascertain if any corrections in the register of electors are necessary because of errors of a clerical or typographical nature and, if any such corrections are ascertained to be necessary, the registration authority shall publish a list of them within the said period and the list shall be deemed to form part of the register of electors.

(6) For each reference to a date contained in subsection (1) of section 13 , subsections (3) and (4) of section 15 and subsection (2) of section 16 of the Juries Act, 1927 , there shall be substituted a reference to such date as may be specified by regulations under this section as being substituted therefor.

(7) In subsection (6) of section 40 of the Court Officers Act, 1926 , “under the regulations made pursuant to section 7 of the Electoral Act, 1963” shall be substituted for all words from “as registration officer” to the end of the subsection.

(8) No person shall be entered more than once in a register of electors for a registration area as a juror.

(9) (a) The Minister shall procure all printing required for registration purposes to be done in such manner as he considers proper.

(b) The Minister shall, by arrangements made with the sanction of the Minister for Finance, secure that the total cost of preparing and publishing the register of electors, shall be borne in approximately equal proportions by the State and by registration authorities.

(10) (a) Any person who, without lawful authority, wilfully destroys or mutilates any notice, draft register, copy of the register of electors or other document made available for public inspection in connection with the preparation of the register of electors shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

(b) An offence under this subsection may be prosecuted by the authority which caused the notice, draft register, copy of the register of electors or other document to be made available for public inspection.

(11) A reference in any enactment to the electors lists shall be construed as a reference to the draft register prepared for the purposes of this section.

(12) Where regulations under this section are proposed to be made, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the regulations shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each House.