Sir, - I refer to the letter from Ben Hemmens (August 9th) concerning his voting papers for the recent Seanad election for the Dublin University Constituency. The letter implies inefficiency in this office and/or in An Post's arrangements for forwarding votes to electors.
The true situation is that Mr Hemmen's voting papers were forwarded to his registered address (in Scotland) by An Post on Friday, July 4th, 1997 in accordance with the Ministerial Order regulating this election.
They were returned as "gone away" and reached the returned letters section of An Post on July 19th. They were received in this office on July 21st and re-posted to his previous address (his parents') on July 25th, 1997. This shows that every effort was made to get his vote to him although he had not kept us informed of his address change.
The first I knew of an address in Austria was on reading his letter in The Irish Times. - Yours, etc.,
Dermot J. M. Sherlock,
Registration Officer, Dublin University Constituency, Dublin 2.