Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill and thank everyone for the hard work they have put into it.

From my experience, there are significant gaps in voter registration and the people who actually vote. Younger people, marginalised groups, those in rented accommodation, minorities and those from disadvantaged areas are most affected by the weaknesses and gaps in voter registration. A question raised with me by many people is that if the Department of Social Protection can take a son or a daughter off the children's allowance benefit as soon as they turn 18, why can they not be added to the electoral register then. When Ms Woods referred to matching data, would that be included in that? The preregistration of 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds is a good idea. Will this be done by matching data from schools?

I support the 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds being allowed to vote. It is something we need to look at and do more on.

In the previous general election, for example, in my constituency, Cork North-Central, the proportion of people who voted in different polling stations varied from 30.1% to 69.1%. What we know from these figures is that people in more affluent areas vote and fewer people in more disadvantaged and marginalised areas vote. These statistics are probably borne out right across the country. We need to do more to make sure that people are registered and that people can vote, and that also ties in to voter education.

In Cork, in Sinn Féin, we produce a mock ballot paper so that people can understand what it looks like because we find that a lot of people have not voted or very rarely vote. We are trying to help them. It is much more difficult for people when there are multiple votes - a referendum, a local election, a general election and European election. It can be very confusing for people who are not used to voting or who might have issues with literacy. That needs to be dealt with reasonably here.

Last year, before the general election, we held a number of events where we would register people. Cork City Council did it as well in the libraries. We found it a great success and so did Cork City Council. We need to do more of that - going out to supermarkets and areas where people are to meet them.

On the postal vote, which was touched on already, people book their holidays in advance and they feel very upset that when an election is called at short notice, they are not able to vote. It is also for people who are working either up the country or in different areas of the State, who are working abroad, or for students. More work needs to be done on the postal vote.

Overall, I welcome this, but more can be done. I hope I can get some feedback on my questions.