Mr. Noel Whelan:

I thank the members of the committee. I am grateful for and flattered by the invitation to address it. I have followed the committee's previous hearings and do not propose to cover much of that ground except to say that I am struck that there was a general consensus in the expression of regret that this has taken so long and in support for the principle of an electoral commission.

As I have set out in my written submission, I agree with Deputy Fleming that the boundary commission's function should stay with an independent boundary commission. In terms of the state of the electoral register, I am attracted to the New Zealand model, which has effectively franchised that under contract to its postal services. There is an exciting similar potential in Ireland.

In terms of bringing added value, I wish to focus on three points. First, the integrity and confidence that the Irish electorate has in the election system are not to be taken for granted. Like legal systems, integrity and confidence in electoral systems are the kinds of thing that one only notices when they are not there. They are hard won. We have had approximately 100 election-type days between referendums and local, European and general elections since the foundation of the State. In all of my study, I have only come across two instances where anyone even uttered a controversy about the results in that period. I will not name which, but that is a phenomenal achievement for a relatively young democracy born out of a civil war with troubles 60 miles or 100 miles up the road for a long period of its history. Integrity and confidence are not to be taken for granted. It is a compliment to the current electoral administration system that trust and integrity exist. Therefore, any move or adjustment to the system must have regard to that. This can be done as Mr. O'Keeffe suggested by retaining the skills, corporate memory and standing that county registrars and local government officials have in the electoral process, at least initially as we transition to an electoral commission.

Second, although there has been confidence in the administration of elections, there has been a gap between election days in encouraging and promoting participation in the electoral process. I mean this in every sense of the word, from the maintenance of the electoral register and the design of systems that reach out better to young people for the purpose of registering to the need, especially in times of diverse and challenging media, for greater innovation in how all that is communicated and motivated. It is in respect of this gap that an electoral commission has the most capacity to bring added value.

Let us compare the system with the administrators of Gaelic games, who have done that successfully. We have not just watched them referee and administer the games well. They have promoted the games, participation in them, their development and the modernisation of infrastructure in the same way. This is because they are not just working on a Sunday or during a season. They are focused year round on how they can improve interest and involvement in, activity around, the study of, the gathering of information on and the fine-tuning of their system. A key task given by statute to the electoral commission should be the proactive promotion, modernisation and improvement of the electoral process generally. This is in part because, in these changing times, which are politically volatile and volatile in communication terms, it is the best way to ensure integrity and support for the political and electoral systems.

Third, the committee will inevitably analyse whether an electoral commission should happen and what it should do at a point in time in 2015, 2016 or as it rolls out in 2017 or 2018. How politics is done, the context in which it is done, the media environment in which it is done and the level of political competition in this country are changing exponentially. An electoral commission is better placed - this is no criticism of the Civil Service structure generally - to adapt and be given the task of new initiatives that need to be undertaken across the system. For example, the Government is committed at a minimum to overhauling the third level panels in Seanad Éireann for the next election or whenever. This in itself is a major registration task.

There would be some resistance around how we would go about doing that. If we developed a free-standing electoral commission, that experience and expertise could be of added value. The point I am making is that although the recommendations are made at a particular point in time, they must have regard to the fact that while we once had a fairly solid two-and-a-half-party system with traditional loyalties, this has loosened up, as have all of the communications and the demographics in terms of where people live and where they are registered. I believe that an electoral commission with a more diverse skill set would be well positioned to chart those choppy waters.