Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I compliment my colleague, Deputy Gilmore, on producing the Electoral Registration Commissioner Bill 2005, which is long overdue. I also compliment my colleague, Deputy Quinn, who has raised this issue on several occasions in the House and made practical proposals on how we might have found a short-term solution to the problem by employing census enumerators to distribute ballot forms at the same time as they were delivering census forms. By registering people at the same time, we would be able to achieve an accurate count of those living in houses, apartments and flats across the country. I hope the Minister, as reported, will follow up and re-employ the census enumerators for the next few months after they have completed the collection of census forms to do what Deputy Quinn suggested might have been done at the same time more cheaply.

I add for the Minister's interest that so far I have not received a census form, although I contacted the website and specifically asked for one before last Sunday. Perhaps census enumerators also require more supervision in certain areas.

The inaccuracy of the electoral register is so great as to undermine the whole concept of one person, one vote and damage democracy considerably. As Deputy Gilmore said, with an estimated 400,000 to 800,000 persons registered to vote but not entitled to do so because the register has not been overhauled since the foundation of the State, the scope for abuse by unscrupulous persons is considerable, as are the difficulties in ensuring we have an accurate ballot at elections. It is incredible things should have reached this stage, given the importance we attach to the principle of one person, one vote, which is the bedrock of Irish democracy and sovereignty.

This year we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. In some commemorations we will remember that Cumann na mBan came out to join the Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers because its members were committed to the concept of one person, one vote. They were suffragettes too, since it was part and parcel of the milieu of the time and inspired many people to become involved in the political movement. It is certainly of major concern to everyone in the country, and it should be of particular concern to us, who as politicians find we must face the people every few years. We expect each person to have one vote and no one to have more than one. We certainly do not expect anyone to have several or that the concept of voting early and often might still apply anywhere in the country.

At least a dozen constituencies in the next election will return a Dáil Deputy with a winning margin of a few hundred votes or less, which could turn the tide regarding what Government is formed. The country will be governed for five years or so on that basis, making it of considerable concern to us all. We are the only people with the power to do something about it. Deputy Gilmore proposes precisely that: a practical, rational system whereby we address the inflated register. That register is oversubscribed, probably in the vast majority of cases, for very valid reasons unconnected with any abuse. The dead have not been removed from the register because there is no mechanism to do so. Others may have moved on or have been registered twice, and the same applies. For all sorts of valid reasons, the register is growing all the time. Every time someone moves house, there is the danger that he or she will be registered again.

I can explain the situation in a constituency such as mine. Dublin Central is an inner-city constituency, and the North Circular Road is largely populated by tenants in private landlord accommodation. There is an average of nine tenants to each house on that street, and over the years vast numbers of them have come and gone. They have been added to the electoral register while they lived there, but their names have not been deleted upon leaving because there is no mechanism.

At election time vast quantities of voting cards are distributed to those houses, and virtually anyone can pick them up and vote. Since no one knows the identity of such a transient population, no one challenges personation at the polling station. The system is now no longer so effective. Various political parties had personation agents in the stations, but that is no longer so widespread, and people are not challenging voters to the same degree, since they do not know their neighbours any more owing to great changes in the nature of urban populations in particular.

There are of course numerous other means of abusing the voting system. In the absence of any supervisory and accountability mechanism, we have a real problem. Each local authority is charged with carrying out the work by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, but no one checks to see what each local authority does.

With scarce resources, maintaining the electoral register is time-consuming and expensive, and local authorities have more pressing needs. In the short term, census enumerators should continue to be employed in May and June to retrace their footsteps and check the electoral register. In the longer term, it is essential to put the compilation of the electoral register on a proper footing. An electoral registration commissioner is the best way of ensuring the register is put on such a proper footing and kept there.

Gated communities are the bane of every politician, and virtually every new development now ends up being such. If one examines the register, one finds that only approximately 10% of people in such communities are registered to vote. That means they are outside the democratic process and we have vast increases in the populations of inner-city and suburban constituencies who are not part and parcel of the voting process. They cannot be contacted by politicians or even by census enumerators. This time, the latter group have found their job twice as hard as before.

This is all part of the social change taking place. Much of it is due to the Minister's colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, who has been very ineffective in dealing with the crime problems which have beset urban communities especially in recent times. People feel fearful unless they live in gated communities. Thankfully, Dublin City Council has made a policy decision that no more of its social housing developments will be gated communities. It had begun to go down the same road. I hope other local authorities will follow suit. Is there a system where we could ensure private developments forward some type of case before they can become gated communities which block out the world, all social intercourse and effectively mean people live in fortresses, because it is very damaging to society?

The PPS number proposal for identification purposes is important. The present identification mechanisms are inadequate. The worst thing in the world is to have a system where a passport is regarded as the identification document because it is unreliable in the present circumstances. There must be closer supervision of the mechanism by which we deal with the matter. Supervision, co-ordination, monitoring and promotion of awareness are the keys to dealing with the problem. I hope the Minister will accept this legislation and deal with the matter in the short term.

See this speech in context