Electoral Commission adverts

Sir, – Sarah Farren in her letter (Letters Page, April 23rd) brilliantly captures the very point that we, as Ireland’s independent Electoral Commission, are making in our current series of TV and radio advertisements.

When it comes to voting in Ireland’s elections, people have the right and the desire to make up their own minds in the privacy of the polling booth.

Our adverts deliver a serious message in a series of light-hearted situations, including in a chipper, a travel agency and a hairdressing salon.

These ads portray a person’s opportunity to make up their own mind and to have their decision heard, but that opportunity is suddenly taken away from them, leaving them unheard, unseen and quite frustrated.

Brianna Parkins: Here’s some of the best life advice I’ve ever received

---

Bryan Dobson: ‘Retirement could be a terrible shock to the system – or not, who knows!’

---

The Croke Park effect: ‘It was one of the very few times I cried during the opposition anthem’

---

I spent my maternity leave in a chemo chair. Then I got a letter telling me to go back to work

---

You wouldn’t let someone else decide your takeaway order, your haircut or your next holiday destination.

But if you don’t speak up in June 7th’s European, local and (if living in Limerick) mayoral elections, someone else is deciding for you. Your vote is your voice.

Get registered for a postal vote if eligible by May 11th; for in-person voting get registered by the May 20th deadline.

Please have your voice heard by being a voter on June 7th, 2024. – Yours, etc,

BRIAN DAWSON,

Communications and Public Engagement Manager,

An Coimisiún Toghcháin,

The Electoral Commission.