Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will not do so. I am sure the Minister took notes of what everybody said on that occasion when he asked us to do a job. I presume he came here today to hear what we have come up with.

In 2008 this Oireachtas committee published a report entitled The Future of the Electoral Register in Ireland and Related Matters. Therefore, we do not have to reinvent the wheel and the findings of the report should be taken into consideration in the first instance. However, people's views change over time so public consultation would be good. As the Government's report indicated, Ireland is behind the curve because two thirds of jurisdictions worldwide have such a system.

Of everything that has been mentioned today, boundaries are a huge issue. If one looks at the boundary situation in this country one will discover that the Garda use different boundaries from health boards and health boards use different boundaries from local authorities. As Deputy McEntee has said, there are different electoral boundaries for Dáil elections, etc. I must state that it is difficult to get Dáil and local authority boundaries right in terms of population but boundaries should be synchronised more, particularly to aid the work of public bodies.

Voter registration should be included in the electoral commission. In terms of election spending and donations, we have seen recent newspapers reports on funding from the USA, for example, going into the North of Ireland and then making its way into the Republic. Therefore, we must outline rules and procedures that stipulate whether such funding can take place. If such funding is being availed of by one organisation then there should be rules and regulations to stipulate how such funding is raised and we must ensure there is transparency all the way through the process.

Senator Brennan mentioned the old slogan of "vote early and vote often" but it is obvious that some people are voting more than once. The recent recommendations made by the Geary Institute recommended that PPS numbers be used which is the situation that prevails in the UK. I do not see anything wrong with such a provision. There was an outcry when we tried to introduce the use of PPS numbers for water services and people rejected the suggestion. Other countries use PPS numbers and I do not know why the idea is so opposed in Ireland.

At present the management of the electoral system is spread between the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, 31 local authorities, a clutch of agencies, including the Standards in Public Office Commission, the registrar of parties, the constituency commissions, the referendum commission and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. I would like to see an evaluation of the cost involved to carry out this work by all these bodies. We would save money if we put it in one little hoop. Making a saving is not the prime aim and objective, we must get it right. When the Government looks at funding I suggest every aspect is taken into consideration and we marry these.

The Geary Institute also recommended that public bodies share data information. I agree that should happen and suggest it be written into statute law somewhere. As far as I know, voting by post is allowed in the UK. The residents of the UK can vote before they go on holidays. If they can do it then why can we not do so here? One could not have a system that did not use PPS numbers because it would be wide open to fraud.

I will not comment on political engagement because it has been spoken about enough. On electronic voting, I will not talk about going into a booth to press a button because everybody loves to use a peann luaidhe to vote but I must ask the following question. If Irish people can bank online then why do we not trust online voting? Members of the Oireachtas are bad at trusting cloud computing and we really do not avail of the option. Online voting is something that could be considered.

When we discussed the electoral commission in the Seanad I mentioned surplus votes. I do not know whether anybody has mentioned the subject here today. I would like the Boundary Commission to ban posters. I never erected posters for my first election but I never had the courage to leave them down after that occasion. We have moved on since then and now live in an electronic age. A rule should be introduced to ban posters because they litter the place, in addition to which CO2 emissions have increased due to all of the corry board signs used.