Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2001

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“Edited register of electors.

13A.—(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of this Part and the Second Schedule, a registration authority shall prepare and publish a version of the register of electors which shall be known and is in this Act referred to as the ‘edited register’ in accordance with Part 1A of the Second Schedule.

(2) An edited register published by the registration authority under subsection (1) shall be deemed, for the purposes of section 20, to be part of the register of electors.

(3) A person who uses information in the register prepared under section 13, including a draft register, the supplement to the register prepared under section 15 or in an electors list published under section 16, being information which is excluded from the edited register or edited electors list, for a purpose, other than electoral or other statutory purpose, shall be guilty of an offence.

(4) A registration authority shall not be obliged to comply with subsection (1) until the day which is 3 years after the commencement of section 4 of the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2001, but if it complies with that subsection before that day, subsection (3) and section 133 (as amended by section 32 of the said Act) shall apply accordingly.

National register of electors.

13B.—(1) The Minister may, by order, authorise, subject to the consent of the authority or body, a registration authority or other body established by or under an enactment to compile—

(a) a register comprising the information contained in each of the register of electors prepared by the various registration authorities, including supplements to those registers prepared under section 15 (which shall be known and is in this Act referred to as the ‘national register of electors’); or

(b) a register comprising such of the information contained in each of the said register of electors, including supplements to those registers as aforesaid, as is specified in the order (which shall be known and is in this Act referred to as the ‘national edited register of electors’).

(2) Registration authorities may furnish a copy of the relevant registers free of charge to the authority or body authorised pursuant to subsection (1) for the purposes of its functions thereunder.

(3) An order under this section may provide that the furnishing of registers by registration authorities to the authority or body authorised pursuant to subsection (1) shall be subject to conditions specified in the order, including a condition providing that the cost of preparing, maintaining and publishing the register referred to in subsection (1) shall be met by the registration authorities or otherwise. Subsection (3) of section 13A and section 133 (as amended) shall apply to the use of information in a national register of electors in the same manner as they apply to an individual register complied by a registration authority.

(4) The Minister may, by order, amend or revoke an order under this section (including an order under this subsection).

(5) Every order made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

Preparation and maintenance of register of electors.

13C.—(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of this Part, the Second Schedule, and Parts VII and VIII of the Electoral Act, 1997 , the Minister may, by order, authorise a body, other than a registration authority, to prepare and maintain any of the following:

(i) a register of electors including the postal voter lists and special voter lists, a supplement to the register including supplements to the postal voter lists and special voter lists, an edited register and an edited supplement for one or more registration areas;

(ii) a register of the kind referred to in subsection (1)(a) of section 13B and a register of the kind referred to in subsection (1)(b) of that section.

(2) A body authorised pursuant to subsection (1) shall be deemed to be a registration authority for the purpose of this Part, the Second Schedule and Parts VII and VIII of the Electoral Act, 1997 .

(3) An order under subsection (1) may provide that the cost of preparing and publishing the registers referred to in that subsection shall be met by the registration authorities to whose registration areas those registers relate.

(4) The Minister may, by order, revoke or amend an order under this section (including an order under this subsection).

(5) Where an order under this section (including an order under subsection (4)) is proposed to be made, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the order shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.”.