Ms Fiona Quinn:

The other question was from Deputies Ó Broin and Barry and related to the research piece in particular. We had a brief discussion around this with Senator O'Sullivan. Elsewhere in the world, electoral commissions have this role. I take the point as to what happens until an electoral commission is established. It is one of the very desirable functions that an electoral commission would have and it would bring independence to the process. The commission would be able to manage the research without any sort of political involvement and report on a range of topics, including election results, registrations or whatever the proposed subjects would be. From the Department's perspective, our prioritisation is on trying to progress these two initiatives. If we move to a point where a policy decision is to be taken that an electoral commission could be established on a non-legislative basis, as I mentioned, we would see it happening within a relatively short timeframe. It could conceivably be within 2019 and therefore some of the functions on a non-legislative basis could be assigned as set out in the consultation around research, voter engagement and the raising of awareness. In the interim we are always willing to receive proposals and, as has been mentioned, we are in contact with earlier witnesses to the committee. We are always willing to consider anything they might send to us in the meantime. We hope the electoral commission would move into the space sooner rather than later if those policy decisions are taken.