Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

We are honoured and somewhat chuffed that the Government is watching the Opposition and taking heed of what it is bringing forward. It is good that it is waking up in that regard. It seems the Government is finally waking up to the serious problem we have with the electoral register, which is also welcome. Instead of being negative we very much welcome the Government's new found interest in all those matters.

In June last year the Minister told the House there were 300,000 more names on the electoral register than were eligible to vote, mainly due to slowness in revising the register. I believe that figure could have doubled since. This is due mainly to the slowness in removing the names of dead people, the increase in the number of second homes and persons moving about without advising local authorities. I know of nobody who advises the local authority when he or she moves around. This is especially true in large housing estates in urban areas where there are many rented properties and tenants move in and out on a regular basis. The register is completely and absolutely out of date, as many Deputies have said. Given that nothing has been done since, one can only imagine how much worse the position is now.

My party colleague, Senator Brian Hayes, in December 2004 called for an explanation from South Dublin County Council as to why many people were removed from the electoral register in the run-up to the local elections there. Since the close of the poll Senator Brian Hayes has been contacted by a number of people in Dublin South-West who were unable to vote because they had been removed from the register of electors. It is a sinister development where law abiding citizens who try to exercise their right to vote were denied because some mysterious person had deleted them from the register. As the responsibility for compiling the register rests with the relevant local authorities, questions must be asked as to why and how this occurred. It has occurred in many other areas as well. No matter what the Minister says about the volume of personnel and resources available, local authorities are stretched as regards doing their own work without this extra burden being put on them. I hope the Minister is genuine in his assertion that he is providing money. He should ring-fence some money for local authorities to deal with the electoral register.

Before someone is removed from the register there should be a clear paper trail from the individual to the local authority. At that time Senator Brian Hayes called on the Dublin local authority to explain to voters who were taken off the register exactly who was responsible and why they were removed before the local elections. Equally, the law should be reformed to allow only voters to remove their names from the register. After it is published in April, it could be standard practice to send out a small card to everybody indicating they are on the electoral register. People in households would know they were not on the register if they did not receive a card and there should be a possibility of having the matter corrected at once rather than waiting for 21 to 14 days from a general election. The supplementary register provision is very welcome, but it should be activated much earlier.

It is clear the compilation of the register is haphazard and patchy. Little effort is made to get an accurate picture of exactly who is entitled to vote in the months before an election. Another key problem is the nature of many new apartment developments. Everyone knows it is simply not possible to gain entry to most apartments, never mind who lives there. This is not necessarily a bad situation. It offers a great degree of security to residents, but it makes matters very difficult for someone trying to compile an accurate register. Something must be done to ensure those people are put on the register.

My colleague, Deputy O'Dowd, recently came across an apartment complex in his constituency where no one had voted in the last election as people had moved on and the register was out of date. It is difficult enough to get young people to vote. They are busy, work long hours and are part of a generation that feels separated from the political process, let down by it in many cases and sees no point in voting. There is a difficult task in getting those people to vote, quite apart from getting them to register. We should not make it harder to convince them to take part in the democratic process than it is already. There is no need for those massive inaccuracies. This is 2006, other countries have had widescale apartment living for generations and they can get their citizens onto the electoral register without a problem.

I should be interested to learn the level of registration among new workers here. EU citizens are entitled to vote in local and European elections, while non-EU citizens can vote in local elections, but only if they are registered. Figures from the North are not promising as there is no reason to believe they are any better than here. Only four out of ten people in the minority communities in the North are registered to vote, compared to more than nine out of ten in the general population. That figure compares unfavourably with England and Wales where an estimated 3% of minority ethnic communities are registered. Moreover, out of the minority groupings registered in the North, fewer than half bother to vote compared to the overall average turnout there of 64%. Among minorities in the North, almost a third said they did not know how to register and a quarter said they did not know they had to register. I urge the Minister to examine this area when he takes on the challenge of sorting out the register.

Every person has a PPS number. This is vital, as indicated by Deputy Gilmore and other Labour Party speakers. When someone reaches voting age they get a PPS number. The Department of Social and Family Affairs could automatically inform the relevant local authority. Such a system would effectively eliminate much of the confusion that currently reigns. The Minister said there were complications involved in this as well, but I cannot see how this could be so.

I echo the comments of my colleague, Deputy Gay Mitchell, as regards voting rights for prisoners. Many people in prison have few skills. Some have little formal education. These people are deprived of their liberty and to deprive them of the right to vote as well is to dehumanise them. It also releases prisoners from their responsibilities. In times gone by it was difficult if not impossible to have prisoners on the electoral register and allow them to vote, but times have changed.

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