The vacancy was caused by the death last year of Fianna Fáil TD and minister Séamus Brennan.
Mr Carey said that as the Minister with responsibility for active citizenship, he had a particular interest in achieving the highest voter turnout possible.
“To achieve this, it is important that we make voting easier and more convenient for more people.
“We believe that by holding the Dublin South byelection and the local and European polls on the same day, we are helping to promote voter participation while minimising the cost to the taxpayer.”
Mr Carey was responding to a Labour motion that the writ for the byelection be moved this week.
Mr Carey said he did not accept the contention that the Government was acting in an undemocratic fashion by not setting a date for the byelection.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said that it was seven months since Mr Brennan’s death and long past the time when the byelection should have been held. “I am aware that the normal procedure is that the party which held the seat where the vacancy has occurred gets the opportunity to move the writ,” said Mr Gilmore.
“I had expected that Fianna Fáil would move the writ when the Dáil resumed after the summer recession. That would have allowed the byelection to be held sometime towards the end of October.”
Mr Gilmore said his party had held off in order to give Fianna Fáil a reasonable opportunity to move the writ.
When he had raised the matter on the Order of Business, it had, on some occasions, been treated as some sort of joke.
In Britain, said Mr Gilmore, byelections were held within a matter of weeks of the vacancy occurring in the House of Commons. The practice in the early decades of the Dáil was to have byelections within a space of a few weeks.
“For instance, in 1927 Kevin O’Higgins was assassinated on July 10th, but the consequent byelection was held on August 24th,” said Mr Gilmore.
Aengus Ó Snodaigh (SF, Dublin South Central) said that there should be an appropriate timeframe of three or four months for the holding of a byelection while taking account of the sensitivities relating to the death of a member of the House.
Fine Gael spokesman Phil Hogan said that the constituency had been without full political representation for the past seven months.
“This political deficit should be addressed as soon as possible,” she said.
Olivia Mitchell (FG, Dublin South) said it would be “unthinkable” to leave the byelection until the European and local elections.
The Government defeated the motion by 74 votes to 70.
