COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

QUESTION NO. 15

QUESTION: Councillor B. Bonner

During a recent canvass of the Boot Road and Common's Road, a number of residents expressed their unhappiness at the fact that they are now required to vote in Sruleen School when they have always voted in St. Joseph's Boys School.  They are most unhappy about this.  To ask the Manager, how can they get this decision reversed?

Similarly, many residents of Cappaghmore are very unhappy at having to go to Balgaddy School to vote.  Many of the residents are elderly with no transport.  Balgaddy is most inaccessible for them and they pass the much closer St. Peter Apostle School on the way.  Their natural polling centre would be Clonburris School which is in fact their parish centre. Balgaddy may as well be the other side of the world with no public transport etc.

REPLY:

Section 28 of the Electoral Act 1992 requires that each County Council shall, as soon as may be, and thereafter at least once in every ten years, make a scheme dividing the County into Polling Districts and appointing a Polling Place for each Polling District.  Such a Scheme is called a Polling Scheme.  

A Polling Scheme does not identify the location of Polling Stations but rather refers statutorily to Polling Places / a generalistic identification of the area in which the polling stations are located.  It is a matter for the Returning Officer to determine the exact location of the individual polling stations and make polling arrangements.  Polling arrangements are made on the basis of the Register of Electors which is produced in accordance with the Polling Districts defined within the Polling Scheme.

The last Polling Scheme was approved by the Council in 2010, the previous Scheme was made in 2003.   The 2010 Scheme was made as a result of a number of issues which gave rise to required changes to the Register of Electors including the 2008 Local Electoral Area review and the subsequent making of the COUNTY OF SOUTH DUBLIN LOCAL ELECTORAL AREAS ORDER 2009.   Some changes were enforced due to the new constituency boundaries and others were made to improve voting arrangements than those already in place for some electors.  Physical ground provisions / natural boundaries also gave impact.

Regarding Boot Road / Commons Road area - This area is in the Polling District of FS.   A change did come about on foot of the 2010 Polling Scheme for electors in this district. Prior to the implementation of the 2010 Polling Scheme all the electors in Polling District FS voted in St. Joseph’s NS.  As a result of the "new" polling scheme FS (because of its electoral number size) was split into 2 Polling Districts / Registers– one part retaining the reference FS and the other part being renamed as FY.   As a result of this change a new polling station was used for FS i.e. Sacred Heart NS (in parish of Sruleen, hence Sruleen NS).  Electors in FY Polling District continued to use St. Joseph’s.

Regarding Cappaghmore - This area is in the Polling District of FN.    The Council did not make any changes to this area in the 2010 Polling Scheme adopted in September 2010. Between 2004 and 2009 St. Peter the Apostle N. S., Neilstown Road was used as Polling Station for electors in Polling District FN. In 2011 the Returning Officer assigned Archbishop Ryan Senior N.S. as a Polling Station.  

Point to NOTE: St. Peter the Apostle N. S is physically located outside the boundary of Polling District FN.   (It is actually located within Polling District FM).  Archbishop Ryan Senior N.S is located within Polling District FN.  It is quite likely that as polling arrangements are based on Polling Districts / Registers that the decision was taken by the Returning Officer to select a polling station within Polling District FN.