Councils must target gaps in electoral register - Crowe

Speaking last Monday, after a successful weekend electoral registration drive by Sinn Féin in his constituency of Dublin South West, the party's Social Affairs spokesperson Seán Crowe TD said that South Dublin County Council had failed to put in the time, energy and resources to ensure that the register was up to date.

"It has been up to political parties, community groups, local residents associations and campaigners to do what the Council should have been doing for weeks. We need more and more imaginative ways of registering people."

He said that as hard as people had worked, to get people onto the register, he feared it was not going to be enough.

"This process has summarily stripped thousands of people in my constituency, and no doubt tens of thousands across the state, of their right to vote. Many of them, as pointed out in the media over the weekend, from severely disadvantaged urban areas.

"South Dublin Council still has four days left to get people on the doorsteps and to ensure resources are targeted at those areas where there are clear gaps in the register. Across the state, other local authorities must do the same. Time is running out for those people who have been deprived of their rights as Irish citizens."