Dr. Muiris MacCárthaigh:

I would like to make two points. I can attest that after I moved across the Border, I was never asked for identification until I went to vote in Belfast. I was certainly asked for identification then. It is quite difficult for one to get on the register there. One has to prove many things. I have moved once since I started living in Northern Ireland. I had to come off one and go onto the other. It is a different experience. It is a much more regulated system.

Professor Farrell made some important points about the exact role of the commission. I might differ a little with him in this respect. Maybe he is not saying that an electoral commission is needed and we can wait until it has been set up before we decide what it will do. I think the tendency to rush has been a problem in the Irish administrative system. That is why this discussion is very useful. Will the role of the commission be confined to ironing out kinks in the system - for example, in the register - as has been suggested? Perhaps it should be set up for just five years if it will no longer be needed after this work is finished. That probably will not happen. If it is agreed that we need an electoral commission immediately to sort out some glaring problems in the Irish system, that is fine. The bigger question is what it should do thereafter. I would see that as a greater challenge. How will we know whether it is doing a good job? Every public organisation in Ireland should be pushed at all times to improve the quality of performance; in this case, the quality of the performance of the Irish democratic process. I was very interested to read a list in the 2008 document which referred to codes of conduct for returning officers. It is important to think beyond day one about what else this commission can do. It should not be a case of merely setting up a commission that solves a problem, but then sits there with nobody quite knowing what to do with it. It needs to have an ambitious agenda way into the future.