merrion street

Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, has last Wednesday (3rd April 2014) made an order appointing Friday, 23rd May 2014 as the polling day and the hours of 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. to be the hours of polling at the European Parliament Elections.

The European Parliament elections will be held in conjunction with the local elections, for which a polling day order was made on 19th March 2014.

The Minister has appointed Ríona Ní Fhlanghaile, a Principal Officer in the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, to be the chief returning officer for the European election.

Candidate nominations:

The returning officers for the three European constituencies will in the coming days give public notice of the times for receiving nominations and of the application requirements. Prospective candidates should note the Government’s intention to remove the prohibition on persons adjudicated as undischarged bankrupt. In this regard, the Government decided this week to bring forward legislation, for consideration by the Oireachtas, to repeal the legal provision that a person who is “an undischarged bankrupt under an adjudication by a court of competent jurisdiction in the State” shall not be eligible for election in Ireland to the European Parliament.

Voter Registration:

Every person who is an Irish citizen or a citizen of an EU Member State and is included in the register of electors for the constituency is entitled to vote at the European Parliament Elections. A person eligible to vote but not yet registered as an elector still has time to apply for entry in the supplement to the register to be published before polling day and so be able to vote on 23rd May. To be eligible, a person must be an Irish or EU citizen who is 18 years of age or over on or before polling day and who is ordinarily resident in the constituency.

For inclusion in the supplement to the register, a person completes the relevant application form (RFA2), which can be downloaded from www.checktheregister.ie or can be obtained from City or County Councils. Application forms will need to be received by the registration authority for the area in which the applicant is resident not later than Tuesday, 6th May 2014. For those seeking inclusion in the supplement to the postal and special voters lists, the relevant application forms will need to be received by the registration authority not later than Saturday, 26th April 2014.