115. The Act of 1997 is amended—

(a) in section 12—

(i) in subsection (3)—

(I) in paragraph (a)(i), by the deletion of “in force”,

(II) in paragraph (d), by the deletion of “subject to paragraph (e),”, and

(III) by the deletion of paragraph (e),

(ii) in subsection (4), by the deletion of “a supplement to”,

(b) in the Second Schedule—

(i) in Rule 41, by the insertion of the following definitions:

“ ‘person in charge’ means the owner or operator of the place where the special voter is ordinarily resident or the person under whose direction and control the activities at that place are being conducted;

‘relevant official in the place where the special voter is ordinarily resident’ means the person in charge of the place where the special voter is ordinarily resident or any person authorised by the person in charge who is employed in the place where the special voter is ordinarily resident, but the person shall not be the same person as the person appointed as special presiding officer (if any) under Rule 43(1);”,

(ii) by the insertion of the following Rule after Rule 47:

“47A. Where a person is entered on the special voters list under section 17 of the Act of 1992 but the place where the special voter is ordinarily resident is not accessible to the special presiding officer and as a consequence the special voter would be unable to vote at the poll at the election in accordance with section 82 of the Act of 1992 the returning officer for the constituency in which the special voter is ordinarily resident shall, as circumstances may require—

(a) issue a postal vote to that special voter as if that voter was a postal voter entered on the postal voters list under section 14(d) of the Act of 1992 and in that case Part XIII of that Act shall apply, or

(b) apply Part XIV of the Act of 1992 to voting by that special voter with the modification that references in that Part to ‘member of the Garda Síochána’ shall be read as references to ‘relevant official in the place where the special voter is ordinarily resident’.”,

(iii) in Rule 47A(a) (as inserted by subparagraph (ii)), by the substitution of “section 14(1)(d)” for “section 14(d)”,

and

(c) in the Second Schedule in paragraph (2) of Rule 60—

(i) in subparagraph (a), by the deletion of—

(I)“a supplement to”, and

(II)“which the registration authority is empowered to prepare and publish in accordance with section 15A of the Electoral Act 1992”,

(ii) by the substitution of the following subparagraph for subparagraph (b):

“(b) Rule 33 (other than paragraphs (6) and (7)) and Rule 34(1) and (2) of Part VI of the Second Schedule to the Act of 1992 shall apply to an application to be entered in the postal voters list under subparagraph (a) as if references to section 14 and to section 14(a), (b) or (c) were references to Rule 60(2)(a).”,

and

(iii) by the substitution of the following subparagraph for subparagraph (c):

“(c) Subsection (2) of section 14 of the Act of 1992 shall not apply to an application under this paragraph.”.