Registrar regrets distress caused by letters to voters

Up to 19,000 people who received warning notices in recent weeks from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council will not have their names removed from the draft register of electors, the Dublin county registrar has stated.

At a hearing yesterday the registrar, Susan Ryan, said that names of individuals would be deleted only if the local authority received correspondence indicating the person concerned had "gone away", was not at the specified address or in cases of a duplicate entry on the register.

She said that the names of persons who had died would also be removed.

The registrar said that she was sorry if the warning letters sent out by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council had caused distress to anyone. She said that the timing of the letters - just prior to Christmas - had been unfortunate and that a lot of people had been confused.

Ms Ryan said that it was not the intention to deprive anyone of their right to vote and she would recommend that the local authority write again to the people concerned setting out the position.

The notices sent out by the local authority on December 22nd advised named individuals that if they did not write to the registrar in advance or turn up at the registrar's office in Dublin yesterday, they faced having their names removed from the draft register of electors.

Council officials had earlier made door-to-door inquiries regarding the electoral register. However, around 30,000 people did not respond to two visits by local authority personnel and failed to complete documentation left at their addresses.

Last November each of these was sent a stamped addressed envelope which requested them to confirm the details supplied. About 11,000 people responded to this correspondence. However 19,000 did not do so.

It was these 19,000 people who were sent the warning notices on December 22nd.

Earlier this week Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council withdrew the notices following legal advice. Only about a dozen people turned up in person at the hearing in the registrar's office yesterday, although a substantial number had made written submissions.

The Labour Party TD for Dún Laoghaire, Eamon Gilmore, who had complained about the procedure adopted by the local authority, was legally represented at the hearing .

Both Mr Gilmore and the Green Party TD, Ciarán Cuffe, called on the council to apologise to the 19,000 people to whom it had sent the written notices.

Mr Gilmore said that the local authority had made a total mess of the situation. "The way in which Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Council handled this matter has been a shocking example of excessive bureaucracy," he said.

Mr Cuffe said that a number of people, particularly the elderly, had been genuinely fearful and worried by the letters.

One voter, Séamus Whelan from Sandycove, said that process had been "a cock-up" from the beginning.