Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. Like Deputy O'Connor, I thank Deputy Gilmore for introducing the Bill. I agree with the principle but disagree with the commissioner aspect. As I was a first-time candidate when elected in 1997, I can be far more direct than Deputy O'Connor was. The registers are a disgrace and an outrage. They are inaccurate and would not be tolerated by any organisation that was serious about what goes on. I have no objection to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which has a role in overseeing elections, and perhaps the local authorities overseeing election procedures on polling day. I am quite convinced that the local authorities should have no role in gathering the names on the electoral register. Local authorities have had the job and failed miserably. They have no interest in the task whatever.

Five weeks ago officials from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government appeared before the Committee of Public Accounts. I asked for their view on the inaccuracies on the electoral register, estimated at somewhere from 300,000 to 600,000, and what they were doing about it. As quick as lightning, the official produced a report from under the desk and he said that a report done 30 years ago estimated that the register had approximately 200,000 errors. His justification was that this is a long-standing traditional problem in Ireland. That is proof positive that the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and its local agents, the local authorities, are fully aware of the issue but have no interest or inclination to do anything about it. They should not be allowed near the task ever again.

Since I was first elected I have urged every Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to give the job of collecting the information to an organisation like An Post. Postal delivery people call to most houses every day and know who are in those houses. I do not mind if the database is retained through the local government function, which has a role in administering elections through the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. However, local authorities should have nothing to do with collecting the information.

Over the years I have come across several incidences where in particular district electoral divisions a person was given the job of checking the electoral register, which resulted in phenomenal changes. This might happen in one DED in a constituency every two years. When somebody goes to the effort, the tremendous results can be seen. I do not believe the local authorities should be doing this work. It would be a retrograde step for the Dáil to ask the local authorities to redouble their efforts, make new proposals or provide extra funding. As they have had all the chances in the world and have failed, this responsibility should be taken from them.

I would like to see the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government work on this matter on an all-party basis. Details of the running of elections affect the basic elements of democracy and it should not be done on a unilateral basis by a Government or Private Members' Bill. It must come through all-party consensus. Without consensus, we would have the same difficulties we had with electronic voting and it would not be viable. Even if it had the support of the majority in the House, I would not be happy pushing through the Labour Party's preferred solution. It must be done by consensus.

Individuals' PPS numbers should be used. It can be confusing that when people move from Dublin to Laois and want to get on the register, they need to supply the name and number of the register on which they were in Dublin. That task can become so difficult that they give up. When transferring from one constituency to another, these complications create considerable difficulties. They do not represent a new entry in the register but a change of constituency. If the PPS number were used, this could be supplied to the local authority or whatever body might do this in future and it could take the voter off the register in the previous constituency.

Many of the mistakes relate to people moving address. We all know of people on the register in several locations having moved house three or four times. However, bad that might be, it is much worse for people arriving in new estates who may have been removed from the register at their previous address and as they are not on the register in their new area, they find themselves without a vote.

When officials from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government appeared before the Committee of Public Accounts, they made a lame excuse on how difficult it is to have the register accurate by citing that within a couple of weeks of the last general election — it might have been the local and European elections — up to 60,000 new people were entered on the register. I suggest that they were the most accurate additions to the register because those wanting to register at that stage must have a form signed at the Garda station. Quite a cumbersome process is involved in getting on the register and they were probably the only ones fully verified — perhaps not by the local authority but by the Garda.

I welcome the debate. I do not agree with the concept of a commission. Without having political influence, I would like to see the people involved having a political interest in ensuring the job is done properly. A commissioner might not have the same kind of drive or determination. Ultimately it should be under the control of the House, because we are the democratically elected Parliament, rather than an individual commissioner.

I have read the various articles that Deputy Gilmore has written in the newspapers over several months and I agree with all of them. It is a shambles and we should be ashamed of it. It is not just the fault of Fianna Fáil. The report produced by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government was 30 years old and it knew of the problem since then. It does not care and is not interested. People with an interest in elections and the democratic process should carry out this function. It is only a question of whether we should use the census enumerators and their network as mentioned last night — I had not thought about that before — or an organisation like An Post to do the groundwork. The subsequent processing and maintaining of the database would be another matter and I do not have a hang-up as to who might do that once it is verifiable and accurate.

I support the principle of the debate but not the commissioner.

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