Professor David Farrell:

I would like to pick up on one of Deputy Mulherin's comments about how we are very prone, in this part of the world, to advising new democracies on how to develop and on what is good. When we look at the audit of where independent electoral commissions exist, it is telling that they are more prominent in the newer democracies. Clearly, although we are very quick to advise new democracies that they should have independent electoral commissions, we are a bit more slow to adopt them ourselves. Perhaps we should start thinking about following our own advice.