Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

That is very difficult since these houses are supposed to have only four or five bedrooms. There was an extraordinary voter turn-out in some of those houses in the last general election.

The only way we can tidy up this is by having census enumerators or other temporary staff doing the leg-work. It is not an easy job, since not everyone now lives in the old terraced, semi-detached or detached houses. It is difficult, and we see that the census enumerators have a more difficult battle than they had last time, certainly in Dublin and other cities, whatever about around the countryside. We are talking of additional staff — if we do not run into industrial relations problems, which I hope we will not — and the census enumerators are a good choice for the job because they have gone to courses in the winter, have undertaken practical work and have been on the ground for a number of weeks. Personally I think this is the best approach and I hope the industrial relations issues can be addressed.

Using the PPS numbers is probably better in the longer term. My other brother, alderman Maurice Ahern, has been arguing for this for years in Dublin Corporation and in the Fianna Fáil Party, and I think he is right. Using the PPS system would be a good way of addressing this but would require a good lead-in time, with modern technology.

Regarding voter fraud, strong legislation has been introduced in recent years to prevent abuses of the system, and this must be mirrored on the ground by vigilance on the part of polling staff and personation agents to ensure eligible voters can vote. The law is already there and it is a matter of presiding officers and personation agents implementing it. They must challenge people and demand information. That is important.

It is very important that the register campaign starts early. I mentioned earlier that there are approximately 30,000 deaths each year and those names should be removed from the register. Obviously if they are not and have not been, in a few years it builds up to sizeable numbers. New arrangements to delete the names of deceased persons are now in place. The new system allows for the efficient and timely deletion of the names of deceased persons from the register. There is also an on-line register search facility available for people to check if they are on the register. This provides more help to people and the Department has provided better linkage.

The Deputy asked me about my own experience of this and that of my colleagues in my constituency, which is a difficult enough one because of the number of flats and apartments in it. They tell me that it is not that people are not on the register but that nobody is taken off it. That is the difficulty. People who move on from flats and houses remain on the register because there is no check-——

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