Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for sharing the opinions of their respective governments. It will help the committee in how we proceed. I will make some general points that our guests might address at a later stage.

Am I correct that in all the countries in which this practice is allowed there is a list system, principally, which provides for easier access to the voting system in terms of administration at the back end? Devising a system that fits with our PR system will engage us considerably because of the impact on people in terms of registering in their individual constituencies.

Mr. Garrigues said that people can vote in a manner that supports the region from which they come. How does this work? For example, does the individual decide to register for a particular region or register based on birth, the last location in which he or she lived prior to migrating, and so on? I can see how that would work for us in presidential or European elections, but it would be much more difficult for us in the context of Dáil and local elections. I look forward to hearing how the Spanish manage the connection between the place where the vote counts and the individual.