Mr. James Doorley:

Yes, I would definitely agree with that. Having been involved in this work for a number of years, I would say that in the past five or six years we have seen a big upswing in the numbers of young people engaged in politics. The referendums demonstrated to young people that voting makes a difference and that they can influence the shape or direction of the country. That was a good demonstration for them and in the last general election in 2020, the numbers of young people who engaged with us in terms of registering to vote and making sure they had a vote was much higher than in previous elections. A great deal of work had to be done by our member organisations, particularly USI, at local level in universities to get young people onto the electoral register within a very tight timeframe. We believe that we need to invest more in the electoral register. I agree with those Deputies and Senators who said that we need an accurate register that mitigates fraud or wrongdoing but that is only possible if we invest in it. The electoral register is so important. Committee members know, as do I, that there is nothing as disheartening as making the effort to vote by going to a polling station and then being told by the polling officer that one is not on the register. That is very disillusioning. We need to invest in the register.