Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being with us today. In many ways, it is an exciting day. Many people over many decades have spoken about the delivery of an electoral reform Bill and the establishment of an electoral commission.

As the Chair said, it is worth noting the work done by the Department under the previous Government. It is obvious we are ready to go with this measure as a result of that work. However, I still believe, in terms of committing to it and establishing it, that it often could be described as not being a priority but as it underlies the very foundations of democracy and how we run the country, I believe it is very important.

I want to comment on some of the changes such as the pre-registration, giving people who may live in Dublin but who are from a rural area an ease of access to change their address, the removal of those who are deceased from the register and the registration process itself. All of those are incredibly positive moves and in many ways will drag our electoral laws out of the last century but there is a big job of work still to be done.

I have a number of questions for the Minister of State. I will ask some of them in my allotted time, Senator Fitzpatrick will then contribute and then I will come back again. The Minister of State might answer the questions where he can. The key issue concerns head 66. It would appear that under head 66(2), the total number of Members of Dáil Éireann, subject to Article 16.2.2° of the Constitution, is identified as being between 166 and 172. That would be a substantial increase from the current number. I ask the Minister of State to outline the rationale for that. Has it to do with population growth? Is there any immediate expected change?