20th March 2002

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Call to Taoiseach for Saturday voting

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD has called on the Taoiseach to ensure that polling in the General Election takes place on a Saturday to facilitate voting by students and others who work away from home. The Sinn Fein TD said:

"Students and workers who commute to and from their homes, usually on a weekly basis, are discriminated against by the practice of weekday voting. Most of these voters are registered in their home constituencies and are not in a position to travel mid-week to cast their vote. I have heard many complaints from people who were unable to vote in the last two referenda because of the mid-week polling.

"I am urging the Taoiseach and the Minister for the Environment and Local Gvoernment to ensure that polling in the forthcoming General Election takes place on a Saturday. It is hard to take seriously the government's stated encouragement of young people to use their vote if so many of them are inconvenienced in this way. Saturday voting has been supported by the National Youth Council of Ireland and I urge the government to take this positive step."

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