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

I confirm I am in Leinster House. I thank the Minister of State for his comments. I think all the political parties and Independents have indicated broad support for this Bill during our PLS. We have all described it as once-in-a-generation legislation we are very keen to see progress. There is also strong cross-party unanimity on the need to see the legislation significantly strengthened. This is not intended to delay it in any way but to ensure that it is the best possible legislation to govern the electoral processes. I am a little bit disappointed, though maybe that is not the word, but I had thought that the Minister of State would outline in his opening remarks some of his responses to some of the things witnesses at the committee said. Perhaps that is more appropriately done after we forward our PLS report. Obviously we will send a committee report and I expect it to be a unanimous one. There were many interesting views so maybe I will highlight a few of those and get the Minister of State to respond in the question-and-answer section.

There was much talk about the need to ensure that, given how the electoral process and campaigning - especially online campaigning- are changing at such a rapid pace, the commission would have enough scope to be able to keep pace with that without being obliged to keep coming back for legislative reforms of its remit, roles and responsibilities. That was one of the strongest comments made by the experts who dealt with digital aspects of electoral reform and I would be interested to hear the Minister of State's comments on that.

Obviously there were also recommendations from some of the political scientists that we ensure the commission engages in promoting electoral participation during elections as well outside them, not unlike the role of referendum commissions currently. It is eminently sensible and I would be interested in the Minister of State's response to that.

The key issue around increasing registration and participation outside elections entirely comes down to how it is done. Everybody says they want it to happen but it is about how it is done and how we resource it. Again, I would be interested in the Minister of State's response to all that.

There is another issue which is a small one but which is very important to many of us. The political scientists made a very strong plea for ongoing electoral research, of the kind which was funded centrally until 2007 and which is now done on a piecemeal basis between RTÉ, UCD and others. Is that something the Minister of State can see being worked into the Bill?

Finally, there was some criticism of the structure with the board and a judicial chair. Is the Minister of State willing to say he is considering rethinking those? Crucially, will the Minister of State give us a timeline? If we get our PLS report to him before the recess, which some of us hope we can do, when could we expect the Bill to come back to us? After all this hard work being done the Minister of State, his officials and ourselves, we do not want to see it being another year or so before the Bill is actually brought to Second Stage. Many of us would like to see this in the autumn.