Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

There has always been an undercurrent of problems with the register, particularly with the advent of computers some time in the 1960s. The technology certainly existed for some degree of cross-checking as between local authorities.

I was very impressed by Mr. Maurice Coughlan, principal officer in the franchise section of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who said clearly at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government in December that the use of PPS numbers would be of great advantage in managing and administering the electoral register. That was in December, and January, February, March and April have gone by with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government having had little to say on the issue. I would remind him, however, that there is a desk in the Customs House, his name is on it and the buck should stop with him. It is entirely within his remit to come up with a new Bill to address this. It is not overly complicated. I imagine the average parliamentary draftsman could have the heads of a Bill drawn up in a couple of days. I certainly believe there is still time to bring it in by next November or some other date that is suitable.

Deputy's Gilmore's Bill is excellent. It makes perfect sense to use PPS numbers. We all agreed on that issue in December and nodding consensus, at least, was given to the need for an independent electoral commission. We need look no further than across the Border to see how it works. Up to the not too distant past we saw, across the Border, the problems that resulted from not having a clear and understandable system. Deputy Mulcahy really misunderstood the question. The reason we did not support electronic voting on this side of the House was that there was not a voter verifiable audit trail. That is the issue with electronic voting. I have no problem with using a computer to cross-check the PPS numbers. I still think the local authority can play a valid role in the compilation of the register. The trick is to send the files up to HQ and to make sure that somebody just runs the spreadsheet through a computer who can point out, for example, if five people have the same PPS number so that somebody can knock on their doors to find out what is going on. That would not be overly complicated and I think it can be done.

There is a clear need to establish the electoral register commission. The use of PPS numbers would eliminate the risk of inclusion of deceased persons and would allow local authorities to cross-check the data to make sure no person is registered more than once. This is probably the first time in my three years in the House that I have agreed with Deputy Mulcahy, and I agree that we should perhaps look at mandatory ID at polling stations, whether it be a bus pass, pension book or credit card statement, as he suggested. In this day and age it makes sense to keep a slightly tighter rein on who is turning up at polling stations. We use ID in every other aspect of our lives and it is no harm to use it in polling stations.

I remind the Government side of the House that we had a full discussion on this matter in the Joint Committee on Environment and Local Government last December and we were all agreed on the solution. The Minister, Deputy Roche, stated it is too late to bring about radical change in electoral registration in the lead-in to the next election. He has had responsibility for this matter for the past 18 months and he has done little or nothing to deal with the problem since his appointment. One of two things is going on. Either the Minister is completely and utterly inept in this area or there is a more ominous and darker reason for his inability to come to terms with reforming the electoral register. Although he does not need reminding, I remind him that his predecessor spent over €60 million on the fiasco that was electronic voting. A mere fraction of that would sort out the problems of reform of the electoral roll. With my party colleagues I will be voting for the Labour Party Bill this evening.

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