Professor David Farrell:

That was the point I was making. We would expect an electoral commission to set standards, experiment and monitor.

I lived in Manchester for 20 years and can remember voting in a local election in the Asda at the far end of Manchester from where I lived. There were no limitations on my ability to vote because the British electoral commission was experimenting and that is what we would be considering here. I will give members one potentially mundane example of just how bad things are here. Where does one go when one wishes to learn who won an election or what were the election results? One goes to RTE, to a television company. That should be the function of an electoral commission and one should not be using a utility to try to get that information. It should be the job of the electoral commission of Ireland to provide such information as it happens but that is not available in this country.