Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

Checks and balances must be introduced if prisoners are given votes, and I am sure the Minister will do that.

It would be remiss of me not to refer to the debacle of electronic voting, during the course of this debate. That episode has put the entire political electoral process in a very bad light. Taxpayers are paying exorbitant rates for the storage of useless electronic voting machines, thanks to the complete lack of direction from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. These machines were bought and never used, despite the trenchant opposition of Deputy Gilmore and myself over many days at the Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government. The former Minister, Deputy Cullen, insisted on having his own way and got the Government majority on the committee at the time to agree to purchase those machines, despite the doubts and lack of clarity surrounding the issue. The revelation on foot of a parliamentary question tabled by Deputy Paul McGrath showed the State is paying widely differing annual rates for still storing those useless machines. The costs range from nothing in County Sligo to an average of €1.65 per machine in County Louth and an incredible €271.22 per machine in County Waterford — the home county of the Minister who was responsible for buying those machines. The overall cost for the storage of voting machines in County Waterford is close to €50,000 a year. It is well for the warehouse owner who is getting that rent courtesy of the useless machines he is storing. Will the Minister, Deputy Roche, come clean and say when he will have a sale of those machines or will he make a clean breast of it and admit they are useless and that their purchase was a mistake and stop storing them? Will the Minister who was responsible for the purchase of the machines be surcharged for the loss that will be incurred when those machines are sold?

Another serious fault with the register is the short window of opportunity provided for examining the register. The Minister referred to this matter in his speech. When the register comes out at the end of November one will have only up to 28 December or some such date to check it. That is not a good time of the year as people have enough on their minds coming up to Christmas with all the rush and the hype involved without having to check the electoral register. I made a submission on this matter to the commission that was considering changes to the legislation, but it was ignored.

I am pleased to hear the Minister refer to this issue because if a proper window of opportunity were provided, such as when party branch meetings take place from January to March each year, as the Minister suggested, political parties and local and national representatives could play a part in ensuring the register was compiled fairly accurately. This could be done efficiently and effectively in rural areas where practically everybody knows everybody else, although that situation is now changing. There is very little opportunity of doing this in urban areas where one only knows one's next door neighbour or a few people down the street, except in very settled estates where one's children have grown up and one mixes with other people. It is practically impossible to know who is living in new estates and to compile the register in an effective and correct manner.

The Minister referred in his speech to the registration of deaths. Over 30,000 deaths are recorded in Ireland each year. When canvassing one often asks how many votes are in each house and the person who opens the door would say there is this person, that person and so on. A canvasser could read down the register and say there is John Roche, Michael Roche, Mary Roche and Patrick Roche, only to be told that the woman's husband, Patrick, died four years ago, although he is still on the register. That is embarrassing for both the woman in the house and the canvasser and it should not happen. The register of deaths could be used to ensure that at least deceased people are taken off the electoral register.

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