Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State and the officials. This is very important, as other speakers have said. Democracy is fragile and without a fully functioning electoral process, it is impossible to have fair and free elections, which are essential. The idea of the independent electoral commission is very welcome and long overdue.

I am interested to know whether there is any estimate of what the required budget will be for an independent electoral commission.

I want to talk a bit about, and understand better, the proposals on the register of electors. It is all contained in section 13. I am not convinced that commencing from a position of assuming our registers of electors are in a fit for purpose condition is a safe point of departure for us. We have a huge opportunity here and we need to be careful to maximise the opportunity to ensure the integrity of our elections and the effectiveness of our process. This can only be achieved if we are working from a database that has integrity.

I have some concerns. From speaking to colleagues throughout the country, I know that, in Cork after the previous local elections, councillors who were elected said there were as many dead people on the register as there were people who were alive. In the constituency of Dublin Central in some very modest properties there are the equivalent of communes registered. I do not really accept we should start with thinking the register of electors is in a fit for purpose condition. Even if we did, from a data management perspective I do not understand the strategy of us having the local authorities compile databases while at the same time we are creating a centralised database. I want to understand how this will work because as a basic principle to guarantee the integrity of the database there should be only one database. I want to understand how this will work.

I also do not understand why, if we are moving to a centralised online rolling database, there would be localised databases. It just does not make any sense. If it is a centralised online database, it is available remotely from any place but it should be centralised to ensure its integrity. I want to understand this. It is important that we understand it before we pass the legislation. The way the legislation is written at present to me clearly speaks about these two different functions, with the local authorities continuing to have a function. I must commend the staff in Dublin City Council, with whom I have engaged many times on the electoral register for the constituency of Dublin Central. To be fair to them, it was not possible to clean it up. If we are going to invest in all of this and take this important move towards strengthening our democracy, we need to ensure we are not undermining it by starting with a messy database.

With regard to the postal vote and the marked register, again if we get the database correct and it is online, then the marked register, which is only available in PDF form, should be something that is available afterwards in a dynamic digital format as opposed to a PDF. We need to reflect the fact the postal vote is great for people in a semi-permanent situation, but people who have to travel for business at short notice cannot qualify for a postal vote. These are people who pay their taxes and contribute to their communities and who are entitled to have a say. Sometimes, and very often, they cannot vote because they do not qualify for a postal vote. We should address this while we have the opportunity.

Funding political advertising and political messaging is very important. It is important that we capture where the funding is coming from outside of the State. I thank the Minister and the officials.