Mr. James Doorley:

I thank the Deputy for his questions. We think the electoral commission will have to invest significant resources in the electoral registration system. We examined the New Zealand system some years ago. The clear issue is that we under-resource the electoral register in Ireland. I cannot remember the exact figures but two and a half or three times as much funding was invested in the New Zealand electoral registration system compared to our ours. The Deputy is right in what he said. Young people do not understand why they have to print out a form, get it signed in a Garda station and post it. I agree with the Deputy that we make it difficult for people to register to vote. We have always said that by linking electoral registration to PPS numbers - a person's PPS card contains his or her date of birth - people could be automatically included on the register and they would not have to go through that elaborate and difficult process. We would definitely welcome that. There are probably technical issues involved in doing that. It should be our ambition in the long term to move towards a system where people are automatically registered rather than having to go through a very elaborate system.

We are concerned the legislation, as drafted, even though it is only the heads of the Bill, provides for the commission to only have an oversight role, make recommendations and do research. We will not have a national register. A question was raised by previous speakers regarding a person who moves house three or four times. That person could end up being on the register in three or four places. The register is incomplete and inaccurate. We are not convinced based on what we have seen so far that the register will speak nationally to itself, as it were. There will still be 30 separate registers and it will be difficult for people to move around in terms of the accuracy of the register. We need to invest time and resources to make sure we have an accurate and up to date register. That work needs to be done by the electoral commission as a matter of urgency.