Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

It would appear that the Minister is saying that everything seems to be okay, and such is not the case. An article in The Sunday Tribune this week showed quite clearly that the register is overestimated by 105%.

I take on board what the Minister is saying, that there is an extensive review under way at present. According to his Secretary General's information to the committee yesterday, there has been no change in the draft register figures. In fact, it shows that the same problems will arise.

Given that the census coincides with what is happening — I take on board the point that a census takes place every five years but there has just been one — and we are facing into the local elections, there is the opportunity to sort something out.

Even with the new figures, where I believe there is a drop of 32,000, the number on the register is still estimated to be 120,000 above the number of voters in the country. If we take the recent constituency boundary reports, that amounts to almost five Deputies on the basis that 25,000 people are represented by one Deputy. Therefore, there are either five too many Deputies or five too few Deputies, and this must be corrected.

There are three underpinning factors to do with the register of electors — completion, accuracy and security. Under any of those three criteria the current system is badly flawed. I acknowledge the Department is putting money into correcting it, but it is putting money into the same system and all that will create are more of the same problems.

Could we not look at this in a visionary way which has two aspects, that there is the system in which the register of electors is compiled and there is the method by which individual citizens engage with it? The system needs a massive overhaul involving a move from a household registration system to an individual registration system and the creation of processes such as the use of the PPS system, which the Minister supported in this House at an earlier time when he was sitting in a different seat.

The Minister stated that he will put together a national commission. Perhaps that makes sense because at present there are 34 local authorities trying to compile registers where there is no guarantee of standard, no measurement and no core funding, and local authorities respond to this in an ad hoc fashion. Would his Department now consider changing the system and engaging a process where the individual citizen is measured through the PPS system for the exercise of his or her franchise?

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