Donie Cassidy (Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

Speaking as one who has risen the hard way, working for 45 years to get where I am, making a success of being a businessperson and then entering public life and being able to assist the people of my native county and, like the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, having the great honour of wearing the county jersey for a few years, I hope at the end of my five-year term as a Deputy for Westmeath, I will be able to say honestly and without any gimmicks or throwaway one-liners that I have certainly helped make a difference.

The new census will show that people have come into the county to commute to such places as Dublin and Kildare. Improvements are happening in our county. With the economy now in such a good state, buoyant and with no emigration, we can have great sporting success, something seen in our unprecedented victory in the Leinster championship last year. The Bill before the House today has raised a great many issues. At election time we all become aware that people are not on the register although they have voted for many years previously. For one reason or another, through no fault of their own, they have been left off the register. Very many young people who should be on the register are not, especially in areas of increased population where new communities are being established. Entire housing estates are not on the register as they should be.

Having knocked on doors for perhaps 45 years and served as a postman in early life, I make this proposal for the serious consideration of the Minister. It is reasonable to assume that at least 10% of the electorate is disenfranchised from one election to another because of inaccuracies in the register. I call on the Minister to employ the local postman or postwoman to assemble the initial register for each electoral area. The first person to know that one has moved into an area will be the postman or postwoman rather than the Garda Síochána, as we are led to believe. It may not be the doctor, priest or teacher, although the teacher would have a chance with a younger family. The one sure-fire person to know is the postman or postwoman. I know that, if properly remunerated, they would be the best people to assist in assembling the register at election time. I pay tribute to the postal employees in my area who voluntarily assisted us over the years in the north Westmeath and Mullingar area in particular, where I have served for many years.

I was the Leader of Seanad Éireann up to 2002, and a Bill came to the House for our approval regarding opinion polls being banned for seven days before election day. I want to see that section restored to this Bill. A seven to ten day poll ban should include election day. The difficulty with the last section was that election day was not included, as Senator Ross and I noticed at about 10.20 p.m., meaning the Bill had to be reconsidered. That very good and wise section allowed the electorate time for calm consideration of the candidates presented to it by the various parties, as well as the Independents. Why should anyone be allowed to interfere with the democratic system for which people fought? People gave their lives to allow us to exercise our franchise and vote democratically for our choice of candidate. A man or woman who may not have enormous resources should have as good a chance of getting the people's approval as others. I hope the current Minister will consider bringing back that section in the interests of democracy, as did the last Government and the previous Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey. As all the parties will agree, there should be time for calm reflection so that the electorate can consider the merits of a candidate.

I will return to the issue of redrawing constituency boundaries. It is not merely politicians who are concerned at the proposed changes. Those who live in the constituencies affected are also extremely concerned, and many of those in north Westmeath, particularly the Coole district, are very upset at the proposal. The commission's decision to transfer the Coole electoral area in north Westmeath to the new constituency of Meath West may well result in there being no resident Deputy to represent it after the next general election. It took the people of Coole in north Westmeath 37 years from 1965 to get one. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle is the last Deputy in the House who served with the late M. J. Kennedy. On the day Mr. Kennedy died, 16 February 1965, Seán Lemass went to Phoenix Park and called a general election. From 1965 until my election in 2002 the Coole electorate had no representative from any party in Dáil Éireann. That is too long for such an unhelpful and unhappy situation to obtain. What is the rural community of north Westmeath to do for another 37 or 40 years? It is totally unfair that the county boundary has once again been breached, so that we have been put in with County Meath. We have no difficulty working with people there, but the issue is of having a representative at the seat of power with access to Ministers, Ministers of State, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. That is a massive advantage for an electoral area.

I will list my achievements, humble as they are: the new stand-alone community college in Castlepollard, which has just been opened; a new, one-stop shop facility, with 14 staff from Westmeath County Council, in Castlepollard; a new fire station; and a new centre for the village of Delvin, all areas that experienced huge emigration over the years. Deputies representing or with roots in rural areas will know the importance of that. It is bad to split the county and take 30% of the terrain of north Westmeath, which has only 6,000 voters. That will give an indication of how rural an area I was born into and which I am so privileged and honoured to represent.

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