Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the gentlemen for sharing their considerable wisdom with us and we look forward to teasing out the advice they have given us. There were some interesting points and I will not repeat them. However, I was struck when Noel Whelan spoke about his father putting people on the register. One of the things that maddens people even more is when people like his father take people who have been on the register for a considerable time off the register. That issue must be addressed as well. There is nothing as annoying for someone who has been on the register for 50 years. Suddenly, even though they have not died or gone away, as someone else in politics would say, they are not on the register on the day of the election.

At the outset it appeared that the witnesses were saying that the boundary commission should be separate from the electoral commission, but I notice Jim O'Keeffe appears to be saying that they should be a single body with, perhaps, sub-committees of it to deal with various things. Noel Whelan spoke about confidence in the electoral system, which is of the utmost importance and a very valid point. However, in the three elections in which I stood, there were up to 40,000 people who did not have confidence in it. First, there was an area of south Tipperary brought into north Tipperary. Second, an area of south Offaly was brought into north Tipperary.

If they think the boundary commission is doing its job right, the witnesses should talk to the people from Lower Ormond and Nenagh in north Tipperary, who have now gone into the Offaly constituency. There should be more to a constituency than just the number of people. We should also look at the location and the distance from one point to another. For example, to go from one end of the new Tipperary constituency to the other is over 75 miles. It might be better if we were joined up with Tallaght or somewhere. At least we would have the motorway to get up directly to it. There are major issues to be dealt with. The other issue is that people are sick and tired of the various bodies, a commission for that, a body for this and something else for the other. If we are to make progress on this, we need to solidify all of it and get it in under the one umbrella.

Deputy Fleming made a very good point about 20,000 spoiled votes, but nobody from his group has mentioned the people who do not vote at all and whether an element of the commission's function should be to deal with compulsory voting, or whether that is a political issue. In any election, in his constituency or mine, the people who do not vote would certainly elect at least one Member if they were all to turn out. We need to address that problem.

On establishing the register, the witnesses were talking about how they deal with the register and PPS numbers. There are so many people compiling registers now that perhaps they should consider the experience of the Revenue Commissioners and Irish Water. I am sure it would bring joy to many people if Irish Water had a role in compiling the register of the day.