Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

I welcome Deputy Varadkar's acknowledgement of the reforming nature of the Minister and the legislation. It is important to remember that this country has not always had fair and unbiased electoral boundary revisions, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s when constituency boundary revisions that were not without controversy over their lack of fairness were passed by many Ministers. I welcome the fact that we have a much more transparent and trustworthy system, particularly given that boundary revision is done by an independent panel at times determined by demographic change rather than political expediency.

Section 9 provides for the establishment of constituency commissions, upon the publication by the Central Statistics Office of preliminary census figures, and for the report of the commission to be completed not later than three months after the publication of the final census figures. The latter is an important provision. As many Deputies will remember, a complex and important case was heard in the High Court last year in which several plaintiffs claimed that the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005 was inconsistent with the Constitution. While Mr. Justice Clarke, in his verdict, claimed that the Act was not inconsistent with the Constitution, he stated that he believed the obligations on the Oireachtas regarding its constitutional duties to provide for equal representation "calls for a consideration of whether measures can be put in place to minimise the gap between the availability of census figures and the enactment of legislation". It was an important point.

While six months may have been deemed a sufficient lapse between final census figures and the final report of a constituency commission until now, the three-month deadline proposed by the Bill is a sensible reform. The provision for the establishment of a constituency commission as soon as provisional census figures are published is sensible.

The progress made by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, in establishing an electoral commission and in local government reform will have a dynamic effect on how we run all our elections. The commitment in An Agreed Programme for Government to establish an electoral commission that will take responsibility for electoral administration and oversight, implementing modern and efficient electoral practices, revising constituency boundaries, taking over the functions of the Standards in Public Office Commission relating to election spending and the examination of the issue of financing the political system is a substantial and significant undertaking. The process of revising the electoral rules, administering the electoral process and upholding standards in the way parties compete at elections is something that should not be subject to the ideology or whim of any particular Government.

The shift to fair and free elections is one we trust. Sharpening up how we do our business is good for democracy. The Minister's comments yesterday and previously on the cap on spending in local elections should also be welcomed, particularly by a party such as ours, which does not take corporate donations, an aspect of political culture that has for far too long been tainted by suspicion and undue influence from those with much money. There have been murmurings of "buying elections" with extravagant and lavish spending. We all hear stories of how certain candidates with wads of money can out-spend, out-gun and out-manoeuvre a candidate of the same calibre but without the same means in his or her pocket. Capping the spend on local elections would be welcome.

The electoral register must be part of current electoral reform. Those of us who have taken the local authority route know the stories of small three-bedroom houses with ten or 12 people registered there before an election. They are legion. Getting the fundamentals right is important. Simple measures can be put in place to ensure that the register works and is accurate. The Minister's proposals for a rolling electoral register are welcome.

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