merrion street

Environment Minister Phil Hogan today made an order appointing Thursday 31st May 2012 as the polling day for the Stability Treaty Referendum. Polling will take place between the hours of 7 am and 10 pm.

Every Irish citizen who is 18 years of age and included in the register of electors is entitled to vote at the referendum. The total electorate currently stands at some 3.1 million.

Persons who are eligible to vote but who are not registered as electors still have time to apply for entry on the supplement to the register of electors to be published before polling day and so be able to vote on 31 May 2012. Application forms can be downloaded from www.checktheregister.ie or can be obtained from City or County Councils. To be eligible for inclusion in the supplement to the register a person must be an Irish citizen, must be 18 years of age by polling day and must be ordinarily resident in the State.

Referring to the forthcoming referendum, the Minister took the opportunity to encourage Local Returning Officers to consider employing unemployed people on polling day and at the subsequent counts in each constituency.

While the efficient conduct of polls and the count is clearly dependent on having sufficiently skilled and experienced people, I would ask all Local Returning Officers to make a special effort to employ suitable persons who are unemployed,

the Minister said.