Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Minister has accepted that the concerns about inaccuracies in the electoral register are well founded. Is it the Government's view that the figures on inaccuracy advanced by the Sunday Tribune are approximately correct? He has referred to the efforts by Deputy Gilmore, who introduced a Private Bill on this matter.

I cannot see what the problem is regarding the census being every five years and the fact that the electoral register is updated every year. There is not much point in updating it if it is inaccurate to anything like the extent being suggested. Will the Minister of State say more precisely what the problem is in transferring the information garnered in the census for purposes of compilation of an electoral register that obviously would have a high degree of accuracy? I do not know if it is even necessary to put an additional question. The questions on the census form are so comprehensive that it is possible to abstract this information anyway. Even if it is necessary to put an additional question or two on the census form, why could this not be done in the interests of having an electoral register on which we could rely?

See this speech in context