Your vote is your responsibility even if the result is more TDs

IT’S a frightening thought, but it’s possible we might have more TDs imposed on us. That may transpire as a result of the recently concluded census, which is not just an elaborate alibi for where you were on a particular night of the year.

Something that is largely forgotten is the fact that the census forms, which should be well completed by now, may show that the voting population is far higher and that considerably more people are entitled to the franchise.

That could — indeed would — have implications for the proportion of TDs to the population because the Constitution lays out that there should be one if not for everybody in the audience, then at least for between 20,000 and 30,000 voters.

You can see we have a very cosseting Constitution, at least from the TDs’ point of view, and it frowns on overloading them with too many constituents.

Rather a pity that our classroom sizes are not regulated by a similar clause whereby if the number of children per teacher reaches the proportions we are at in many schools, more teachers would be employed automatically.

But that’s a form of proportional representation that bows to the rather ambivalent notion of cherishing every child in the nation equally.

Even before the spectre of a possible extension of the Dáil hovers over us, it seems our electoral system is infested with phantoms — anything between 80,000 and 800,000!

Such is the crowded state of our electoral register that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has voiced some concern about voter fraud, and has admitted that the condition is rife in his own constituency.

Some homes there claimed 80 voters, and while squatting on this scale may be some kind of an answer to the social housing problem, it does not lend itself to electoral probity.

The lack of the vote, on the other hand, has prompted the Labour party to warn of a potential claim against the state. The compo culture could reach a new low if they are right about the appalling state of the electoral register — that very important list which is supposed to contain the names and addresses of those entitled to vote.

Between the Taoiseach’s claim and the Labour party version, however, there is undoubtedly a major problem with the register. Now, if Labour is right, it could prove to be a veritable windfall for about 80,000 people because they might — just might — be entitled to sue the Government for denying them their constitutional right to vote.

Did you ever hear such a daft notion?

According to Labour’s Eamon Gilmore, the dereliction of duty in maintaining the register could result in “massive payouts” if cases were brought by people turned away at the polls.

There is certainly an onus on Environment Minister Dick Roche to ensure that the electoral list is as up-to-date as he can make it through the local authorities under him who are responsible for maintaining the register.

No matter what he or his local authorities do, or don’t do, it is surely the responsibility of each eligible voter to make sure his or her name is on that crucial register, otherwise it’s taking the nanny state to ridiculous extremes.

What Eamon Gilmore reads into Article 16.1.2, of the Constitution, which confers the right to vote, has to be a little too simplistic — even unreasonable.

Rather, to be more accurate, the legal advice given to his party would seem to suggest that it is the local authorities, the minister and the Government who are responsible if your name is not there.

“There is no onus on the citizen to apply to be registered, contrary to the impression given by Mr Roche,” he said, rather surprisingly.

“It is the local authorities and the Government who are in default,” he asserted.

Far be it from me to contradict a legal opinion, but that sounds like so much rubbish.

There is certainly a responsibility on the minister to ensure the register is maintained, but to argue that citizens don’t have to do anything to ensure their constitutional right is protected is utterly ridiculous.

As well, people would have to be particularly naive if they imagined for one moment that the Government was so concerned about their constitutional rights that they could assume they were taken care of automatically.

Rights are rights, and nobody should be more concerned about them than the person who is entitled to them.

THERE is something absurd about the proposition that the Government should be responsible for ensuring that people get their rights, whatever they are.

Too often, it is in the Government’s interest — usually economic — that people do not get their rights.

Even though Prof David Gwynn Morgan of UCC, the author of Constitutional Law of Ireland, does not entirely dismiss the point made by Eamon Gilmore — that cases could not be ruled out — he makes another point with which I can identify: a slight possibility that the election itself would be unconstitutional were voters to be disenfranchised. However, he went on to say that any cases taken would hinge on the interpretation of Article 16.1.2, and suggested that the Government would have enough room to manoeuvre.

Nobody knows the extent to which the electoral register has gone awry, and the figure of 800,000 has been bandied about, which is mind-boggling.

It might be substantially more, or substantially less.

For instance, a study produced this week by Trinity College students — members of the Fianna Fáil youth wing — showed results that were disturbing enough.

It suggested that in the Dublin South-East constituency alone there could be as many as 17,000 entitled to vote, but not on the register.

In other words, 44% of the people there could find themselves without a vote while another 15,000 who have moved, or died, remain on the register.

It’s not good enough for Dick Roche to describe as “inexcusable” the local authorities’ failure to keep their records up to date because he is the minister with the ultimate authority to ensure they should have done so — even though the problem was festering before he took over the office.

With a general election next year, he would want to do something quickly to restore some sense and order to the electoral list.

But the failures of officialdom do not excuse those of us eligible to exercise the franchise from ensuring we are on the list. If we were to all do so, it would also help those whose task it is to identify the exact scale of the apparently frightening mess that is the list at the moment.

Whatever about national and local government accountability in this area, here’s one issue we should not be relying on the State alone to resolve.