Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I listened to Deputy Gregory's ranting so I would be grateful if he would listen to my answer. It is called courtesy. If one were to ask that every person be challenged and that a person be disallowed a vote, particularly an elderly person who does not possess a specific document at the time, Deputy Gregory would be the first person to rightly challenge it. The operation of the challenging system would deliver what Deputy Gregory wishes to achieve. A one in four challenge is significantly higher than would be the norm in any transaction. Deputy Gregory is correct in saying that people in the main are used to carrying identification. This is why I feel it is appropriate that we increase challenges from one in 20 to one in four. To suggest that we should challenge every voter, even when he or she may be an elderly voter who may have lived for 60 or 70 years in the same house and is well known to every person in the polling station, and decide on a bureaucratic whim that he or she should be denied the opportunity to vote is impractical and undemocratic.

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