An parliamentary election is to be staged at the weekend for the first time in the State.
Minister for the Environment, Mr Noel Dempsey, today directed polling for the Dáil's Tipperary South by-election would go ahead on Saturday June 30th.
Traditionally, parliamentary and local elections in the State have been staged on Thursdays and the country is staging three constitutional referendums next Thursday, the same day as the General Election in the UK.
Mr Dempsey said the poll move had been made after a lot of discussion over a number of years about ways of increasing voter turnout, and a number of other measures, including electronic voting, were still being considered.
"This is just an experiment to see if a Saturday poll will attract more voters," he reported.
Until now the only elections in Ireland to be held on a Saturday have been for Udaras na Gaeltachta, an agency for Irish-speaking areas of the country.The minister said: "In that case the turnout was reasonably good and it is important to try it in this case. I think it is worth it as an experiment."
Mr Dempsey said the counting of votes cast under the proportional representation electoral system would probably begin the day after the poll.
The Tipperary South by-election was caused by the death of Fine Gael opposition party representative, Ms Teresa Ahern last year.
It is expected to be the last before a general election next summer.
PA