Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the speakers for their contributions. The question raised by Deputy Stanley reminded me that in the locality where I was born, there was a very strong political tradition which as a child I took very seriously, and that was that one voted early and voted very often. I am not suggesting for one second, given this is recorded, I ever did that, because I got out of there as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, whatever about the merits of an electoral commission in today's Ireland, there was certainly a big need for one back then but sin scéal eile.

I am not entirely convinced about the merits of an electoral commission. The 2008 report is very interesting. There is this question of population size as a big factor, although I am not suggesting it is the only one. We sometimes get carried away, particularly in this House, with the idea of our importance in the world and that we are some sort of superpower. Perhaps this is one of those examples, given there is a very small number of people and a very small number of voters. While that is no reason for not doing it in an orderly and accountable way, and I do not want to take away from that, I do not get terribly excited about this and will not be putting it on my literature next April.

I want to raise one of the great shortcomings in recent referenda. I was waiting for one of the five witnesses to refer to what happened during the Seanad referendum and the appalling way the wording of the ballot paper was dealt with. I have said this in the House in another debate because on polling day, I and other members saw people filling in the ballot paper relating to the inquiries referendum, looking at the other ballot paper-----