merrion street

Local Government Minister Phil Hogan today  announced that the Government has agreed that the European Parliament and Local Elections will be held on Friday 23 May 2014. Polling will be between the hours of 7am and 10pm on that day.

Every person aged 18 years or over is entitled to be registered as a local government elector for the local electoral area where they ordinarily reside – citizenship is not a requirement for voting at the local elections. Every Irish and other EU citizen living in Ireland aged 18 years or over is entitled to be registered to vote at the European Parliament elections in Ireland.

There are some 3.25 million local government and European electors on the current register. A new register of electors, which will apply at the elections, will be published on 1 February 2014 and come into force on 15 February 2014.

In announcing the date for the elections, the Minister encouraged people who are eligible to vote but who missed the opportunity to get on this new register when it was being prepared to apply for inclusion in the supplement to the register of electors at the earliest opportunity. Application forms will need to be received by the registration authority for the area in which the applicant is resident not later than 6 May 2014. For those seeking inclusion in the supplement to the postal and special voters lists, the application forms will need to be received by the registration authority not later than 26 April 2014.

The Minister will in due course make the formal Orders for the European and local elections, setting the date and times for the polls.