Dr. Liam Weeks:

On proportional representation, it is not my role to advocate a particular system but it is a role an electoral commission could investigate. It was asked whether we should have more seats. Personally, it is about whether one wants stricter proportional representation. For example, in 2007 Fianna Fáil won approximately 49% of seats with approximately 41% of first preferences. If one wants strict PR, one will simply have to have larger constituencies.

Professor John Coakley has done research on moving populations. He advocated the idea of having fixed boundaries in much larger constituencies. As the population alters inside these fixed boundaries, the constituencies would lose or gain seats. I imagine a problem returning officers would highlight would be that if one had larger constituencies, it would make voting a great deal more complicated, particularly when it comes to the surplus vote. When it gets more complicated, machines might be needed to count votes, which is what happens in most other systems. In fact, almost every other jurisdiction that uses our voting system, apart from Malta, counts with machines. The number of votes in Malta is very small. Every other system using the single transferable vote seems to use machines to count these votes. My point is that there is no research in this area. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the returning officers do not have these facilities. Research is being done by academics who are being paid by the State who are quite happy to provide the information, but we are simply not asked. This is something that could be done and there could be some liaison if there were conferences between the commissions and academics and other people conducting research in this area.