Dr. Jane Suiter:

As Dr. Reidy has said, preregistration is important. We have to go in and deal with the different schools, or talk to the Data Protection Commissioner, so that we know when people turn 18 through their PPS numbers or whatever else and they automatically get put on it. That needs to be worked out. It is the same thing when people are deceased. The State knows when people are deceased but it is a question of whether that data sharing is permissible and if it is something we want to do. If it is, then when somebody's State pension is no longer being paid, maybe they should be taken off the electoral register. To do this means some element of centralisation and, as Dr. Reidy has said, we do not want to strip functions from local government. Some of these things with regard to moving addresses and so on cannot be done unless there is an overall system that different local authorities feed into. Under such a system, it could be seen and understood that somebody has moved from Cork North-Central to Cork North-West, for example. There has to be some element of this. For that to happen, there has to be some element of data sharing. It would be useful to engage with the Data Protection Commissioner on such questions.

The Deputy spoke about more vulnerable people not voting and lower turnout in disadvantaged communities and communities with higher numbers of young people. This is where it is important to have a strong engagement and education function in the commission, including proper campaigns involving text messages to let people know that it is election day and where their polling place is. We need campaigns on social media, where people will see them. Those functions of the commission are important for precisely those reasons.