Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Barrett for sharing time. I agree with much of what he and previous speakers have said that there should only be one change made to the boundaries every five or ten years. We have to look at how we conduct our business. We cannot have a situation where during the lifetime of a Dáil there may be two revisions of boundaries. It is unfair to the public and to the elected representatives.

I believe we need to go further. The electoral commission and the legislation is constrained under the terms of the Constitution and the ratio of Deputies per head of population, that is, not fewer than 20,000 and not more than 30,000. If the population continues to increase, within a few years it may be necessary to increase the number of Deputies, for which I do not think there is public support, or change the Constitution. This is the time to set up an internal group — not engage consultants — which has the expertise to examine the impasse coming down the tracks. Let us anticipate it and put forward proposals on how we may move forward.

There is a weighted balance heading in the direction of the east coast. I am based on the east coast, as are my two colleagues, Deputy Fleming and the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, on the far side and the Leas-Chathaoirleach, Deputy Howlin. There is a bias towards the east coast. In time the western seaboard and the midlands, relatively speaking, will be denuded of representation at Oireachtas level. That is an issue we must address to make up for that counterbalance. I recall running a proposal on it a year or two ago and I was accused of looking for two rural Deputies for every urban Deputy. That is not the concept but it is much easier to operate a constituency, be it in Kildare or Castleknock, than in Mayo or Kerry. The amount of travel a politician in Mayo has to endure to get around the constituency is phenomenal relative to Kildare, Meath and parts of Wicklow. It is important that we look at those issues.

When he was Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, mooted the idea of single seat constituencies and was shot out of the water straight away. We have to go back and examine that issue. We talk about public sector reform — we must look at reform in our own electoral system. How can we justify Deputy Barrett writing to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council about a housing issue and the housing staff having to send out 20 letters to councillors and Deputies? That is a crazy workload to impose on the staff and it leads to inefficiency.

The dual mandate was abolished to try to reform the electoral system. I do not know how beneficial it has been. Certainly the work has not changed. One does not have a greater amount of time for dealing with legislation and other such matters. If anything, work has become more difficult because one still has to access all the services as in the past, except that one does not have the personal relationships one had in the past to do so.

As far as it is possible, I would like county boundaries maintained. However, I am the beneficiary of a small part of Carlow which has been very kind to me. On Committee Stage, if I can get agreement, I hope to table an amendment to rename the constituency Wicklow-Carlow as opposed to Wicklow because it is important to recognise the contribution the people of Carlow make in that constituency. Despite submissions made by some public representatives in County Carlow about the population being disenfranchised, the vote turnout increased in that part of the constituency. I will allow people to draw their own conclusions.

With regard to the conduct of elections, reference has been made to the electoral register. One electoral register system will not work. There is a need to have several systems in place at the one time. Under the current system of knocking on doors and putting in slips of paper, if the document is not returned the person is struck off the register. During the Lisbon treaty referendum a lady came into my office crying. She had voted in 13 general elections, three by-elections, eight local elections, six European elections and a number of presidential elections, but had been struck off the register. No matter what system is in place we will run into difficulty. I cannot recall the reason but some years ago in my constituency there was an appeal mechanism in place for one of the referenda. There should be an appeal mechanism in place on the day in the event of a difficulty. If somebody arrives at a polling booth, he or she can approach the polling clerk and telephone the county registrar, his or her representative or somebody in the local authority and make his or her case. It is soul destroying not to be able to vote on an issue. One can see the impact it has on people and it is not difficult to deal with the issue there and then.

On the issue of the conduct of elections, many people believe that politicians know how they vote, due to the fact that we check the tallies and how many people voted from a particular street. The clear message has got to go out that we do not know how each individual votes. Many people can be intimidated on the basis that they feel the politicians know how they vote. It is important to realise that the only way one can be sure that somebody does not vote for one is if one gets no vote in the box. There is no other way. That message should go out loud and clear.

Aligned to that are the improvements made in recent years in regard to pressurising people at the entrance to polling stations. No agent should be allowed within the vicinity of a polling station. Once the election is called, people should go to the polling station and cast their vote. There should be nobody there checking off the register. Perhaps we are unique in my constituency, but anything I see is purely to intimidate or influence the voter's right at the polling booth. We need to provide in future legislation that just as posters are not allowed within 100 m of a polling station, an agent or someone else who can influence a candidate should not be allowed within 100 m of a polling station.

On the issue of posters, I am a strong advocate of, and I expect to see legislation from the Green Minister in this regard, confining the erection of posters during election campaigns to certain designated areas in the constituency. For example, in Wexford, there might be some posters on the N11 as one approaches Gorey, some outside Wexford and Enniscorthy.

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