Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I am disappointed the Minister has not agreed to accept the amendment. I foresee that there will be practical difficulties in this regard. As homeless people do not have addresses, we cannot know the addresses at which they will be registered. When the Minister speaks again on this amendment, perhaps he will indicate whether it is intended to require that any given prisoner will be on the register on the basis of his or her home address, and with a "P" — standing for "postal vote" as opposed to "prisoner" — marked beside his or her name. If that is the case, it will not be possible to register homeless people who are prisoners because they do not have addresses. I would like the Minister to address a second aspect of such an approach. The home address of a prisoner who is a sex offender, for example, could be the house in which the victims of the sexual offences in question are still living. In such circumstances, the victims might not want the prisoner to be registered at the home address. As we know, the electoral register is used by people who send out all kinds of mailshots. If correspondence addressed to a sex offender comes through the letterbox of the victims, that might give rise to concern and upset within the household. I will summarise my queries. How will people who were homeless before they were sent to prison be registered, in practical terms? What facility, if any, will be made available to the families of prisoners who simply do not want them to be registered at the home address?

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