Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was just reflecting on the point made there and I agree with Dr. Reidy's comment about encouraging people to vote. I am unsure whether Professor Farrell referred to this - I note his observation about voting in shopping centres, that is, where people actually go - but having a day for voting and whether we really have experimented with Saturdays or Sundays, which for many people are not working days. The evidence shows that in the early part of the last century, there were many more polling stations. However, if one specifically considers shopping centres, that is where people go in their tens of thousands in cities and in their hundreds in smaller towns.

I am not criticising local authorities but the day of the rent or the rates collector looking after the register is long gone. Change, in particular in an urban environment, is so frequent and so massive that there is no way one can keep track of them casually or as part of a part-time job in addition to other work. Were one to consider any agency, An Post should be considered, as that company knows exactly where everybody lives, as it delivers the mail and the bills. Were one to use such organisations that already are visiting people's homes daily, one would have a far better register than one has at present. Moreover, if one contacts people on the register the day after one receives it as a public representative, one will find that 10% to 20% of those people are incorrectly on the register for some reason and there is a huge margin of error there. Consequently, if one gets a 70% or 65% turnout at a polling station, it probably is akin to an 80% turnout of the people who are alive and who are actually able to vote at that time.

The other important issue is the question of reform to which Senator Mac Conghail referred. He is an example of the reform the Government has brought about and is in the Seanad because the Taoiseach properly and rightly nominated him. Indeed, the vast majority of the Taoiseach's nominees to the Seanad were non-political appointments and to state there has been no reform flies in the face of his own voice, because his is a non-political voice and I make that point to the Senator. Moreover, I have no problem with listening to criticism, which I welcome. However, I welcome the Senator, in particular, as well as everyone else. Every voice should be heard in the Oireachtas. As for the Seanad, the Government tried to reform it and while I acknowledge the people made a choice on that-----