Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There was a great overlap. There are no right or wrong answers to some of the questions asked. It is matter of coming to a consensus on many of the issues raised, drilling down to gather as much information as possible and making decisions on that basis. There is no such thing as best practice; there is just practice and there are circumstances. One can take the Kilmeaden cheese approach in that one can take the best and get rid of the rest. That is my attitude. With regard to elections, many things happen in different jurisdictions which could not and should not be replicated here. We need to adopt elements of what is done elsewhere, but the entire suite could not be replicated here because circumstances are different.

We have had a lengthy discussion about voter registration and the maintenance of the electoral register. The local authorities do it at one level, while others do it at another. Reference was made to door to door checking and different practices, but what would be acceptable? The Australian Electoral Commission reports that 91.4% of eligible voters are registered and that its target is 95%. Will we ever exceed a figure of 90% or 95%? In England the registration rate is 91.8%, while in Northern Ireland where there was an improvement following the introduction of a new system, the rate has regressed substantially to 88%. The registration rate for the Scottish referendum was one of the highest ever, at 97.8%. We need to dig into a phenomenal number of issues in this regard to ascertain what is the best thing to do.

We have to come to a consensus on what we are trying to achieve, which is to define the functions of an electoral commission. If all of the questions set out in the document are boiled down, we must establish what the functions should be. I would like this to be as ambitious as possible and concur with the member who said what it should be. I would also like it to incorporate as much as possible and that is my starting point. I would like it to incorporate everything we have discussed, but I am not sure it can because there are so many layers to each issue.

We need advice from the committee on how to do this. We will set out the functions and what we want. If we are ambitious, should we do this in two or three stages or should we take out the electoral register and address it as a separate project? That might be the right way to proceed because it is a technical and specific issue.

The independence of the commission, how its members are selected and its relationship with the Government or the Minister of the day must be defined. These issues need to be addressed in the 11 questions posed.

The independence of the body is paramount and it must be transparent. Those included in it must have experience and we need to examine the appointments process.

We will probably have to go down the route of using PPS numbers, despite the problems in doing this because we cannot continue in the way we are going. There are issues with PPS numbers, given the number issued compared to the number of people living here, but we need a system. In my previous life I built databases and a unique identification code is required to tag items or people in this scenario. Using PPS numbers seems to be the obvious solution. We have all heard stories about multiple voting. One's name can be on the register 400 times, 11 times or twice, but this does not mean that one must vote 400 times, 11 times or twice. Anyone who does so is breaking one of the most fundamental laws of the State.

Constituency boundaries are a bugbear of mine. We may have to consider constitutional change in tandem with this as we cannot go on much longer with how constituency boundaries are managed. I am open to debate on this issue. The draw towards conurbation in Dublin and the population pull means the limitations on the population per seat figure cannot continue. It will cause additional issues in breaking up counties. I agree with the many Deputies and Senators who have stated people who are elected must deal with multiple local authorities, HSE zones and administrative districts for various services, which is difficult. What is also very difficult is that the people of Coolbawn, from where my grandmother comes, now vote in County Offaly, even though they do not want to do so. People in other areas the Vice Chairman knows such as Terryglass and Borrisokane also vote in County Offaly. I canvassed in Shinrone during the last election and the people there did not want to vote in County Tipperary. We had a debate about the position in Moneygall because it is half and half.

Scale issues arise with regard to local electoral areas. A local electoral area in south Kerry extends from Ballinskelligs to Dingle. It is enormous. The continuous breaking of county boundaries for Dáil constituencies will cause more and more problems because of how the administration of local authority areas has been dealt with. We will have to examine how we should deal with this issue. Do we need a larger number of seats in constituencies? We possibly do in some cases, if we do not make other changes. Like the Vice Chairman, I am from County Tipperary where the local authorities have been merged and other bodies have also been amalgamated. Then part of the county was included in a constituency in County Offaly. It is not consistent.

I agree with e-voting and the use of technology but in a completely different way from how it was done previously. I am open to it on the basis of maintaining the democratic process and explaining how votes are transferred. None of us wants to get away from the thrill we get at the count centre. We will have to embrace technology, but how we do so is the issue.

The concept of compulsory voting was tried in Australia and thrown out. Given the psyche of the Irish people, forcing them to do something in any way, shape or form would not be a very good idea. If we try to force people to vote, they will not do so.

I think Deputy Catherine Murphy referred to the electoral spend. Those points have been well made.

The committee should consult far and wide. There are many good people who have much knowledge of this space. Is it evolution versus revolution? It is revolution through evolution. I do not think we can do all of this in one go. We will have to do it in stages but it is revolutionary and it should not take a long time. I will return to the time issue in a minute.

We have the postal vote. Deputy Mulherin made a very good point in that we propose to give votes to people outside the jurisdiction when people living in it, who are temporarily out of the country, may not be able to vote.

I refer to voter knowledge and education which is a bugbear of mine. Everyone of us will have had the following experience when canvassing in a referendum. People will say they do not understand the issue and know nothing about it but there will be two or three pieces of literature and advertisements from the Referendum Commission on the different points in the referendum. There is something more fundamental there, namely, the value of one's vote.

There has been quite an amount of movement in terms of education over the past number of decades but people are still disengaging. It is not that they are not listening to the radio, watching television or getting literature through their letter boxes; it is that they are choosing to disengage. That is the real issue we must address.

The last issue raised was limits on postering. There are limits on postering and I favour limiting them even more. We need to be very careful in regard to the different types of postering used. Use of electronic road signage must be banned because it has the potential to cause hazards. We need to take a fresh look that, which I will do.

We talked a bit about timelines. There are myriad issues - we could talk about this topic for a long time - in regard to the 11 questions and the different sections. In regard to timelines, I would like to be able to bring in the heads of the Bill by the end of the summer, which would mean that within three to four months, the committee's recommendations would be back to me. My preference would be three months. There is a huge amount of work in this and much consultation is required. We have presented a huge document which needs to be digested. All the issues raised here are in that document. I would be surprised if anything raised here was not in it, except the issue of postering.

It is my ambition to have this legislation drafted before I leave office with a view to the next administration implementing it. On that basis, I would like the committee to come back to me within three to four months when we can begin work on the heads of the Bill and look at drafting the legislation by late this year or early next year at the latest. That is my commitment to the committee.