Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To pick up on Deputy Barry's question, the witnesses caught the tail end of the political scientists' presentation and they know them all well. My question is not about the consultations and whether we get an electoral commission; it is about the meantime as we wait for those. Is the Department, and this section in particular, considering whether to fund some form of electoral research this year and next year while the larger issue of a commission and tasking it with ongoing research is decided? We may have a general election and a number of referenda this year or next year. We have local and European elections this year. The witnesses will have some sense of the committee's views on making some funding available. There will be strong support for that from the committee.