Mr. John O'Dowd:

It is interesting that many of these new democracies do not look to us in western Europe or north America for their inspiration; they look to India, where an electoral commission has been operating since the early 1950s. In many ways, the Indian commission has set the standards. It can ensure that people who live in tin huts by the side of the road are registered to vote and get to vote without any difficulty. That rather puts the problems we have in Ireland into perspective. The Indian commission also introduced electronic voting very successfully.