My proposal, which I have put to the Government and for which I am looking for a positive response, is to consider moving the day of national voting from Thursday to Sunday. We have had seven general elections over the past 20 years and the number of people turning out to vote has gone down in each successive election, bar one. It has gone from an average of 76 per cent in 1977 to 68 per cent in 1992. A consistent number of people are not coming out to vote at successive elections and that is worrying. We should not go down the road of the United States of America where only about 50 per cent of the electorate vote.
We have to look at the day we have selected as our day of national ballot. It is not just a day for general elections; it is also a day for referenda and local elections. I contend that Thursday is the most impractical day in the week to vote. I suggest for a number of reasons we should consider the proposal to move it to a Sunday or, if not Sunday, perhaps over the weekend. One must consider the disruption caused to the school system. Thousands of schools close down as a result of voting on Thursday and it causes disruption to parents when children are off school. Many young people are in college or work in one part of the country but live in a different constituency and many of them cannot get home to vote on a Thursday because it is impractical. One must also consider the number of emigrants living in London or other parts of the EU who might come back if the election was held at the weekend.
The number of people working away from home on the day of a national ballot is quite large. People in my constituency spoke to me following the bail referendum and said they could not get out to vote on Thursday because they were working in Kerry or Cork that day. All these difficulties result in the fact that the national ballot has gone down in each successive election over the past 20 years.
The European example is to select a weekend day, preferably a Sunday. The Netherlands and Great Britain are the only two countries in the EU which select a weekday for a ballot. If it is good enough for Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany, it should be good enough for us. It is a simple proposal for which many people have been calling. Given that it is election year and these matters are being considered, I ask the Government to consider this proposal. I look forward to the Minister of State's reply.