Denis Landy (Labour)
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I do not wish that the Chairman lose his seat in the next general election, but should that unfortunate event happen, nobody would be more eminently qualified to head the boundary or electoral commission. Very few in this room, despite taking pride in their knowledge of elections and statistics, could beat the Chairman in this regard. I believe I lost a bet with him on one occasion; perhaps I never paid him. I commend him on his knowledge.

I apologise as I was not able to be here for the earlier contributions. I was representing my electorate with a Minister as part of a delegation. I have a number of points. This is our fourth or fifth day listening to submissions on the electoral commission. The PPS issue has arisen on every occasion. I lay down a challenge for the IALG. Representatives of the CCMA were before us. It is now within the ability of the IALG and CCMA, armed with the knowledge we have and the information imparted to us on the making available of PPS data to local authorities, to fix the issue once and for all. It is a big challenge but I put it to the delegates. I would like to hear their response.

Councillor McVitty told a story about an 88 year old. I encountered a similar case with a 90 year old in the 2011 election. He is now deceased. I knocked on the man's door only to discover he had been taken off the register although he had lived in the same house for 49 years as a council tenant. That was appalling. It is down to people like ourselves in the system to solve this. There is a solution and I would like the delegates' response on that.

With respect to the eminent speaker who referred to centralising the franchise, I totally disagree. We have seen too many services centralised in this country. I would probably need two hands to count them. In every case, a mess has been made. The solution is not to centralise but to get to the nub of the problem. The nub of the problem is that nobody is grasping the problem in his hand and dealing with it. That is what we need to see and that is why I am laying down the challenge.

I am intrigued by opinion polls at times. I take a steer from the Chairman because I have won a lot of money over the years based on his predictions, particularly on the Seanad referendum. I do not mind saying that we lumped the money on when we saw the ridiculous opinion polls based on knocking on doors that I had knocked on throughout Tipperary for two or three months. The opinion being obtained from those who were committed to going out to vote was that they were going to vote "No" to the abolition of the Seanad. The best opinion poll is one that one produces on one's own patch.

I get a little annoyed when opinion polls carried out at national level make downward extrapolations and give results on a constituency-by-constituency basis. The power bases for elected people are different in every constituency. Therefore, they should all be taken with a health warning. I do not agree that they should be banned a week or any other time before an election. They should be available right up to polling day, because I do believe they contribute. I accept the comment that polls did affect trends before polling day and that voters are allowed to change their views.

On the Boundary Commission, there are now new proposals for the changing of boundaries in Waterford, Drogheda, Laois, Carlow and perhaps one other location. I guarantee that if Councillor McVitty checked who made the changes regarding Leitrim and Donegal, and all the other cracked ideas, he will find there was no retired, experienced politician on the boundary commission. I disregard the comments that retired politicians should not be on any commission, including the electoral commission. Nobody has more knowledge of the system than those who are practised in it, in some cases for 20 or 30 years, and who have voluntarily retired. As stated earlier, their experience is cast aside in favour of the retired judge.

I would like a response on the various issues I have raised.