Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Exactly. We have a series of problems which present extraordinary difficulty.

As most of us know, there are genuinely distressed citizens in the community who seek to exercise their vote and who try to get on the register in the immediate run-up to the election. It is unbelievably difficult, and there are pink and blue forms. A person must use one type of form if they are in a certain category. County council officials do not even know how to categorise people. Could we have voter registration and information booths in supermarkets and big shopping centres in order for people to get information in a friendly, informative and authoritative way? Deputy Gilmore's idea that the PPS number be used as an integral part of identification and registration of people is a must with regard to cutting down the capacity for fraud.

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