Caít Keane (Fine Gael)
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Yes. I would like to speak about the possibility of automatically changing from household registration of voting to individualised registration of voting. It was found in a survey in the UK that 78% of voters could be transferred over automatically with the touch of a button. I am sure it would be the same if a survey were done here, but I do not think that has been done. The only people who would lose out under an automatic household transfer system would be young people who are renting and frequently change their addresses. Obviously, a way has to be found because I think this is how we should proceed. Most of the participants we have listened to here over the past four weeks while we have been discussing the possible establishment of a commission have recommended individualisation rather than household registration.

I would like to ask a question about the participation subgroups. Reference has been made to the importance of local participation and local authorities in getting voting done. As I have said previously, there is no point in throwing out the baby with the bath water. We should not centralise everything because local authorities are the best places to do certain things. A person from South Dublin County Council called to my house in Templeogue last night for the purposes of registration. The person in question asked me how many people at my address are on the register. Someone suggested that the local authorities are not involved in this kind of activity, but they are. Obviously, they do not maintain this presence all the time. They might not get the co-operation they need, which means their work might not always be very accurate. Bulk forms are accepted in many councils. Some councils ask people to come in with a councillor or someone like that in order to identify themselves. This is another issue that has to be examined. We need to make it easy for people who want to register to do so.

We will not be at the races until we have a good-quality data matching system. I absolutely think this should be done online. Everybody is going online for everything. I said here the last day that we trust online banking, but someone else said, "No, we do not". Maybe those involved in banking are the last people we should trust.