Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry I was late, I had to go to something else.

Obviously, this approach has served our democracy fairly well. I presume enough has been said about the electoral register. We have been speaking about it ad infinitumand the witnesses do not want to hear what is wrong with it from me again. There is a lot right with it but a lot to be done. Accuracy is best.

On the setting up of an independent commission, we need a definition of "independent". We must ensure that everybody is independent. Political scientists vary. Professor Marsh mentioned one's point of view. Obviously, political scientists are independent but, very often, what happens with science, particularly in an electoral register where boundaries are being drawn, is that the people go out the window and the science comes in the door. There is splitting of parishes right down the middle and it does not produce the best result for the people. It produces the best result numerically, to serve the population in proportion to the number of Deputies, but on the ground it may not be the best.

That has to be a significant consideration for any commission examining the electoral register system.

Professor Michael Marsh spoke about being on the register and how it is important for people to vote. In some countries, there is a penalty for not voting which is another measure which should be looked at. It would make people think about it. "Why bother?" might be one argument. Why not bother if it is important to everybody else? It is important to vote as everyone has a valuable point of view. Some people may think it is not worth their while to vote but it is important.

I was in the Citywest Hotel the night they used electronic voting in an election and a former Minister learned she did not regain her seat. It was an awful shock to the system. That electronic voting system had no obvious countdown or backtrail. If these were included in an electronic voting system, I cannot see how it would not work as it would be fast and much more efficient. However, electronic voting has a bad name. It is ingrained in the psyche that electronic voting is bad and, as some say, it also takes the fun out of elections.