Mr. Jim O'Keeffe:

I take the point Deputy Coonan made about the register. I would not be rushing to introduce compulsory voting, at least initially. We have to have a proper system where anybody who wants to be registered can be registered easily and will only be registered once where they are. Clearly we do not have that because of the dispersed nature of what is there at the moment and other reasons. After that, we want to ensure that those who want to vote can vote.

I also agree with Deputy Coonan that, while we talked about frustrations of people involved in politics and that of people who wanted to vote, the worst frustration I ever saw was people turning up at a polling station, having been on the register all their life, and finding that without their knowledge, consent, approval or notification they were off the register. I can certainly understand that total electoral frustration.

On the boundary commission, I also take the point raised about identity, distance and so on. The central issue, for me anyhow, would not be distance. As the Chairman will know, Cork South-West is about 100 miles long, but there is a sense of identity in west Cork, which is sometimes known as the 33rd county. The distance does not matter too much. It is a bit awkward if one wants to be servicing it, but that is another day's work. The biggest frustration I have found in that regard, going back a good bit, was when a chunk of the western area in Béara was transferred into Kerry South. That caused much more frustration at the time. It is possible, but if we are going for a proportional representation system, we cannot go down to one-seat constituencies. There is no total solution but in so far as is possible identity, whether it is like the west Cork identity or a county identity, should be given very high consideration in the establishment of constituency boundaries.