Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am upstairs in Leinster House 2000, for the information of the clerks. I thank Dr. Suiter, Dr. Reidy and Professor David Farrell not only for their presentation but also for their ongoing work in this area. To pick up on Deputy McAuliffe's bus analogy, it is not only because we have waited so long for the bus but also because, like in so many parts of rural Ireland, we know the next bus will not come for quite some time that we want to make sure that this one is as good as possible. We all want this Bill but we all want the best Bill we can get. My questions are with a view to the fact that this committee will produce a report and that the report will have recommendations. As we all know, the more focused our recommendations are the greater the chance that the Government and the Department will listen to some of them. I am really keen to get the witnesses' specific high-level asks, that is, the things they would like to see added to the Bill in a number of key areas.

First, Dr. Reidy mentioned the audit, but are there any other key functions the witnesses would like to see in the Bill at this stage? Do they have any concern about the independence of the structure as it is set up in terms of being reliant on voted expenditure and other aspects of the Department and the Minister almost being a kind of line manager to the board in some respects?

Second, regarding voter participation, which is a very distinct piece of work, what is the good practice? What should we be looking to insert in the Bill to ensure that this commission has a really strong role in increasing participation, particularly among sections of the population such as young people, lower income communities, migrants, etc. Dr. Suiter mentioned election and referendum research at the start, but I would like the witnesses to bring their experience of previous election research to bear. What do we need to see in this Bill to ensure that the kind of good work that previous governments funded the witnesses and others to do becomes mainstream for all elections and referendums?

Finally, we were told by the officials at the previous meeting that the set-up budget will be at the upper end of €2.7 million within an annual operational budget at the upper end of €1.7 million. Obviously, it is hard to compare this with other jurisdictions because their populations may be bigger and so on, but is that adequate? What is the norm for comparably sized western European liberal democracies? I would also be interested, if the witnesses get a chance, to hear them further expand on some of the online stuff, but that has been well covered so far so perhaps they could concentrate on those other questions first.