A cutback on polling booths is on the card for the Children’s Rights Referendum on November 10.

Presiding Officers in local polling booths in County Galway got notification this week that they could apply for work on Referendum day – but the letter from County Registrar Marian Chambers-Higgins added that cutbacks in the running and administration of the forthcoming Referendum would have to be achieved.

Those who have previously been employed as Presiding Officers and Polling Clerks were told that new arrangements would have to be made – and that some of them could face a heavier workload on polling day.

It has now emerged that Registrars all over the country have been advised that money will be tighter than previously for this Referendum.

Galway Registrar Marian Chambers-Higgins was not available at the time of writing but sources in other counties appear to confirm that there could be a halving of the actual voting boxes in town areas – especially where a number of boxes were located in the same building.

Where there are a number of voting venues in some larger towns these could be centralised into one building this time.

See this week's Connacht Tribune for full story.