Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I have covered the ground for this. There will be an early start to the local authority register for this year. If we can we will use census enumerators or other temporary staff. We will make available a budget for local authorities. The next register will be published in draft form on 1 November. Clearly the work must take place up to that date and up to the final register on 15 February.

There have been meetings with managers and we have engaged actively with the local authority system, which has always undertaken this work completely. A Department was never engaged in this work. The local authorities on the ground make every effort to resolve as many difficulties as possible. We acknowledge that in most elections, the number of people on the register in comparison with the census is usually between 300,000 and 400,000 more.

See this speech in context