Dr. Theresa Reidy:

I will take the question on the electoral registration if that is okay. The main reason we continue to have local authorities involved is because there are layers of complexity involved in voter registration. Envisaged in the Bill is some ongoing type of door-to-door canvass in terms of adding people to the electoral register. There are provisions in respect of postal voting and special polling stations. There are very welcome developments with regard to the provisions for including people who have temporary residence or are of no fixed abode on the register. All of that, which is very welcome, requires some kind of structured organisation and offices across the country. That is one of the reasons continuing to have agencies on the ground is very welcome.

Many countries have automatic registration but if we dig into how that actually works, it means one presents to City Hall, usually within three months of moving to an area, and registers with one's local authority.

That automatically updates the electoral register and one's voting enfranchisement entitlements follow one. It involves a process of engagement with local government. Accordingly, the model we have is not that different. Some of the improvements and reforms built in will make us a little more dependent on knowledge on the ground and having the capacity to process postal voting, special voting, as well as improving registration opportunities on the ground.

The crucial point is that appropriate oversight and procedures are put in place which have to be adhered to. One wants to eliminate the geographic variation that one has at the present time where some local authorities are more effective at delivering this than others. That is where the real emphasis needs to be regarding the reporting requirements to the Minister and the electoral commission, along with the capacity of both of those to require improvements and expansions of activities on the ground. The idea of having local authorities involved is not unusual and is quite typical around the world. It retains this connection and keeps the voting services close to the people.

There is a school programme envisaged and pre-registration for 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds. Again, it would make some degree of sense that this would be organised by franchise staff on the ground working reasonably closely to the schools. Otherwise, we will be looking at a much larger electoral commission. If the commission staff were to be involved in the voter registration processes, there would have to be suboffices and outreach abilities when we already have that structure in place.

One thing we do in Ireland is we strip roles away from local authorities before we actually look at how they could be improved and work better. There is a real tendency towards centralisation. We need to keep that in mind when we are addressing these matters.

On whether research should be put on a statutory function, ascribing a research role to the commission is crucial. We want different types of research. As Dr. Suiter said, on some occasions, one wants campaign research and reports afterwards. There needs to be some degree of autonomy regarding the design and deployment of that research. The commission has a research function which is a positive point. Giving it a little more flexibility would require the approval of the Minister and the Oireachtas. Freeing that up a little bit might be the direction to go rather than putting in more prescriptive statutory obligations.