Mr. Jimmy McMeel:

On Deputy Stanley's question on the role of local authorities, the Department of Finance is involved purely on the financial side of this. From looking at the costs of the May 2014 event, which amounted to more than €12 million, I see the princely sum of €3,405.97 was paid to local authorities for queries on the register of electors. It may be that some returning officers are using local authority premises for taking the poll or counting votes on occasion but, by and large, local authorities are not involved in the financial side of the operation. It is the Central Fund and the Minister for Finance making payments to returning officers who then make onward payments, much of which is for the labour costs of presiding officers, poll clerks and those who count the votes. There are also payments to schools. Most of the returning officers are also officers of the court. They are registrars for the local circuit court areas. Some of them use court premises to store equipment and so forth. In a financial sense, there is not much of an involvement with the local authorities.