Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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I have a question about paragraph 1 on page 2 of Dr. Weeks's submission where he refers to the "inequitable arbitrary means of distributing surplus votes". Having been the beneficiary of the distribution of a surplus, what is the alternative? Obviously, this not a science. The returning officer literally picks up a bunch of ballot papers and distributes a surplus on that basis. If one takes the elimination of a candidate and the geography issue, the nature of the preferences will be skewed in favour of the geographic beneficiary. That goes back to that arbitrary picking up of bundles of votes. What is the alternative or is there one?