Mr. Art O'Leary:

Yes, I love talking about the this, so members should brace themselves. The short version is that this is an area where An Coimisiún Toghacháin can make a real difference to the debate on further electoral reform. The Government has asked us to research a number of issues, including voting at 16, the use of posters in elections, the increased use of postal voting and whether we should do away with by-elections. We have been asked to look at that too. The commission, following the constituency review, said it would it like to do some research on the 20,000 to 30,000 of population per TD provision in the Constitution and also the potential for constituencies greater than five-seats. If six-seat constituencies were available to us we might be living in a different electoral landscape, but three, four and five-seat ones is what is available.

We went to public consultation shortly before Christmas and we got 61 submissions suggesting further areas for research. The commission will have a look at all those issues and identify half a dozen or perhaps a dozen research priorities to look at in the next year or two. It will be great. We will make recommendations and then normally it would be a matter for the Oireachtas whether to agree with them. People seem to have strong views on some of these key issues, such as votes at 16, but ultimately it remains a matter for the Government and the Oireachtas to decide whether they want to accept our recommendations. However, if we are asked for our opinion, I presume someone will take it reasonably seriously.