Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The committee will be having hearings on the issue of the electoral register from various stakeholders such as the local authorities. What is the best international model to which we should aspire? Is there a way of enhancing the status quowithout departing from it?

From my experience in the Cork South-West Constituency, there has been a conscientious franchise operation there, seldom having a controversy. Former rate collectors, for example, are still temporary franchise people and are very good at unscientifically adding people to the register. That is a significant human resource which might not be the case in other areas.

A former environment Minister, Dick Roche, tried to confront this issue several years ago but it backfired. It was a problem because of the number of individual local authorities involved and inconsistencies in approach. It was difficult to find a single consistent solution to this. What is the best system to which we should aspire?