Mr. Ian Power:

We would totally agree with Deputy Coonan's point about people having trust in the electoral system at present, with the exception of the electoral register. We would have a perception that people have trust in polling day and in the result, but not necessarily in the electoral register process. We would not be in favour of compulsory voting. I would respond to his point about the number of people spoiling their ballots by suggesting that many of the people in question believe they are sending a message to the political system. The message in question is to be digested in whatever way one desires. People use ballot-spoiling as a means of engaging with the system without necessarily expressing a preference.

We would support any proposal to allow the diaspora to vote in Presidential elections. We understand there are constitutional complexities and practicalities in relation to the Constitution and how that is done. It is certainly something we would support.

Senator Keane spoke about voter turn-out among young people, which was 62% at the last general election as compared to an average of 70% across all age cohorts.

With regard to validating identity online, lotto.iecan validate people's identities using submissions of passports and passport scans. If a body such as that is able to verify people's identification for that purpose-----