Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have just a few questions. I can hear but there is a bit of an echo on mine. I do not know if there is an echo on other attendees' side.

I welcome this legislation. I welcome that it is looking at online transparency, which is really important. I will also mention the postal vote for people who have gone abroad. That is important. It is something I have addressed on several occasions when people have gone on holidays. What is the window of time for people with regard to signing the form when we have a general election? There used to be that time. Maybe the Minister of State could answer that.

On the local authorities, we have all seen where people got two voting cards, people have passed away or people have been taken off. Is anything in place for local authority funding for staff? Local authorities will play the biggest role here going forward and it is important we make sure they have proper staffing. As the Minister of State knows, people died for the vote. It is important now that local authorities are given funding for extra staff. I request that.

We spoke about boundary committees. We would have spoken in years where we had boundaries set up. In my area on the Carlow-Laois border, there could be a housing estate with one side in Carlow and the other in Laois. People come to me and say that Carlow local authorities look after their maintenance but they are voting for people in Laois and they ask why they are doing that. That is unacceptable. We need common sense here. We need to look at local authorities, and if people's local authorities are in the neighbouring county, they should be allowed to vote in the area where they work and their kids go to school. It is so important with boundaries that common sense prevails. We have seen committees set up on boundaries and they came back but the boundaries never changed and there is confusion where there is a housing estate half in one area and half in another. It does not make sense. With this commission, we have to use common sense and to get it right. This is important legislation and I welcome it.

I also want to ask about information to ensure communication with everyone and that everyone gets information. When it comes to areas like this, because we are politicians we love politics and we think people should go out and vote. We need to give more information and make sure it reaches schools, whether by going into different areas or taking other measures to add communication. I think funding should be put in for advertising.