Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

Does the Minister agree there is a glaring anomaly in the current system of compilation of electoral rolls which delegates the function to local authorities without providing for the centralised cross-checking of the individuals registered? Does the Minister accept his Department has overall responsibility for registration and in delegating responsibility to local authorities needs to keep a check on the figures? The Minister will be aware that the electoral office in Northern Ireland calls to each household twice a year at a cost of £6 million. Surely, the system could be replicated in the Republic for approximately €15 million, a mere fraction of the cost of electronic voting.

I am sure the Minister is aware of the massive population movements of the last decade and that people tend to move more quickly than they did before. Does the Minister accept the current system is based largely on trust and that while the Government has expended tens of millions of euro on an electronic voting system to make very careful cross checks, it has failed to ensure voter registration is cross-checked at county level? Does he accept that a simple system of checks at a national level using personal public service numbers and a central office would make a great deal of sense? This would provide a more secure system which more accurately reflected those who have a right to be registered. It would also ensure that those who are deceased are no longer registered.

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