Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)

Unless the instructions the Minister issued are changed, unless he extends the timeframe for the review and unless he puts in a proper campaign, we will end up with a register, which is ten times worse than what we have at the moment. I plead with the Minister to put the resources into the campaign, to make the changes I have outlined and to ensure we end up with a proper register. I am not alone in believing that there will be thousands of electors wrongly deleted from the register as a result of this exercise.

I turn to the preliminary figures of the 2006 census. The constituencies must be redrawn on the basis of the preliminary census figures, which will be final figures by next February, well before the general election. With a number of my Independent colleagues, I will be pursuing the matter to its conclusion, legally if necessary.

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