Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I got a copy of the deleted list and the numbers who must be visited are frightening. That job will fall to those in political parties or supporters of Independents.

With the best will in the world, we will not be able to get to the people who are on the deleted list. It is not the be all and the end all but it is important and I find it useful. I have the register available in my constituency office and I have put a note in the window to that effect and callers are arriving every day. People are interested enough to check the register when it is made easy for them. I accept the Minister's point that he would expect local authorities to act in the spirit of what is intended.

Deputy Morgan made a point similar to one I made last night about the supplementary register. Some locations do not have Garda stations or 24-hour Garda stations and it is therefore not that easy to have the supplementary form countersigned in a Garda station and it will not happen in many cases. The lack of a deadline means people are less inclined to deal with the form. Most of the names on the supplementary register are signed up in the weeks preceding a general election. More could be done with regard to the supplementary register. The request for 100% identification from those on the supplementary register is a means of ensuring those on the register are eligible, authentic voters. A rolling register could be created even if this is not the best way of doing it.

The on-line system of checking the register can be problematic. I know of a person who spells their name in Irish and this was not recorded on the system because the fada had been omitted, even though the name was entered in the hard copy of the register. The on-line list is very sensitive and it is not being updated as people are added. This is understandable as there must be a system for determining whether people are eligible to vote. However, people cannot be certain that amendments have been made. Constituents have asked me to check and double check whether they have been put back on the register. Some scope for flexibility must be made available within the on-line system than is the case at present. Another constituent has a waiver for bin charges from the local county council and is on the housing waiting list but was deleted from the register. This goes against everything the Minister says is supposed to happen.

Difficulties arise because of the lack of integration among databases. It is a big job to check one database against another. I heard an official from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner speaking on the radio today about the two registers, the public register and a private register. The form allows for a person to opt out of appearing on the public register so they are not subject to receiving junk mail. The default position should be that one is automatically presumed not to wish to be on the public register. Many companies give that option rather than the situation where a person must actively opt out. This is a practical means of ensuring the form does not deter people from completing it. A constituent of mine did not wish her family's details to be used as fodder for sales and marketing. All the members of her family opted out because they did not wish to receive junk mail.

When reading the draft register it is difficult to believe that field work was done. I have noted gaps in information from some housing estates. My constituency has a new housing estate completed every week and many new people arrive daily. However, the gaps appear in long-established housing estates. For instance, the information will be recorded for house No. 1 and then jump to house No. 12. I do not accept the argument that the houses are all rented out and that the population is transient. The deleted list will show one pattern.

Another problem I have noted which may not be picked up during a referendum, for instance, is that many people not entitled to vote in a general election will be given a vote because of the various categories of voters entitled to be on the register. There has not been sufficient scrutiny. I have noted many additional people in my area who may be non-citizens whom I would not have expected to see on the register and who will be entitled to vote in the general election. This raises issues about the validity of the register and this requires attention.

See this speech in context