Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

No, I am a friend of the Deputy's and would be happy to give it to him. I should not draw the Ceann Comhairle into any discussion but he should be aware his name is very well respected in Tallaght on foot of his efforts on our behalf. He was a very progressive Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism and helped Shamrock Rovers in a big way. As we celebrate on Friday, we will not forget him. I will raise a glass to him on Friday night.

I worry about the kinds of electoral areas that have been created in south Dublin. Colleagues can talk about other challenges. While I am not an expert on Clondalkin, I know the five-seater constituency stretching from Brittas, which Deputy Timmins knows well, and Saggart and Rathcoole all the way over to Clondalkin has a population of 53,173. I wonder about the sizes of the electoral areas and about the impact of six-seater constituencies on community development. It will always be said that smaller parties and independent candidates like the constituencies with the highest number of seats. Even five-seater constituencies in local authority areas incorporate many different places. It is a pity we have not debated this. I must face challenges concerning the two electoral areas in my constituency.

Colleagues mentioned the electoral register and the associated difficulties. Deputy Kathleen Lynch referred to voters having to go to the Garda station. In fairness, some system had to be found because there was always a myth that people on the register were really in local cemeteries. I am not being flippant when I say this because we all know these stories. Over recent years, there are problems with registers of electors, not only in south Dublin. It is a fact that on 5 June, when we are at our local polling stations, people will still be asking why they are not included on the register. During the last election, the local bishop, who will not be embarrassed by my saying this, had to identify himself at the polling station, which may be fair enough, and then discovered his name could not be found on the register. Issues will always arise over registers of electors. Over the next 86 days, representatives of all political parties and none will be seeing what they can do to have people included on registers.

A challenge arises over what I call the international community. Indications in this regard have already been received from members of the international community in Dublin South-West and the two Tallaght electoral areas. Perhaps this is to be welcomed but it will give rise to challenges concerning voting patterns and inclusion on the register. Citizenship should be the first priority as far as registering is concerned.

I hope we all continue to do what we can, at least to get people registered. In Tallaght, Deputies Pat Rabbitte, Brian Hayes, Conor Lenihan and Charlie O'Connor have, over the elections, supported an initiative in west Tallaght by An Cosán to get people to register and to get the message across that voting is good for one. We always make the point that people should be registered to vote and should be encouraged to vote and then we all have a chance of getting a vote from them. My constituency is no different from many other constituencies and certainly no different from many urban constituencies where in some cases the voting turnout was quite low in successive elections.

There is a responsibility on all of us to keep working on this and to get the citizenship message across. This is why I supported the Ceann Comhairle's initiative to get out to the schools and to young people. Next Friday, the senior school at St. MacDara's community college will invite all of the European election candidates and local Dáil Deputies to speak to the young people, who are the voters of the near future, about how important voting is and get across a positive message. We all know how cynical everybody can be about politics, in particular young people. I try to bring youth and school groups here and often I find they are quite surprised at what they see and what is being done. Sometimes, they are a bit confused also. It is a positive message to try to get across and try to overcome the cynicism that people can have.

Will the Minister re-examine the issue of sheriffs? I am not complaining about the county sheriff in Dublin only. The sheriffs should examine in an innovative way how to facilitate those who want to vote. We have had situations in my constituency where the location of polling stations has not always been optimum. For example, in previous elections some of the west Tallaght polling stations were used for voters in the mostly rural area of Brittas. Often, I made the point that we should try to make it more convenient for people to register to vote and on polling day and get the system right. I hope that as part of the debate on this legislation that the Minister will examine this.

Reference has been made to posters. In my party there has been much debate on whether we need posters. All of us remember the far-off days when polling stations were covered in posters on election day and most political parties had at least one canvasser for various candidates handing out leaflets. We all thought that system would never change and when it did, generally speaking there was a sigh of relief and people were happy enough with the new system. This proved that one can make changes and get away with them and people move on. The debate on whether we need posters or the amount of posters we have is a good debate and I will be interested to see how it develops and how other political parties and Independent Members handle the Minister's initiative.

The jury is out on this. Deputy Michael D. Higgins made a reasonable point that everybody puts up posters and in any constituency one will see posters for concerts and other such events. In my constituency, politicians and parties are finding innovative ways of getting over the regulations. I got negative and positive publicity prior to the last election when I put up posters early on St. Patrick's Day. I will not do it this year. I got much grief from the council which issued very stern warnings and told me to get them down. However, I was able to drive around my community at the time and see certain other parties putting up leaflets in a different way, such as to advertise meetings. Today, if one drives through Tallaght one will see that a number of parties have posters advertising meetings. They leave them up for a month after the meeting is held. Not to give out about them because I never would, but the socialists are particularly adept at doing this. They keep posters up for all sorts of issues, one week it is about bin charges, the next about litter, the next about Afghanistan and the next about President Obama.

I wonder whether the regulations about posters should be clearer so at least we know what is expected of all of us. I do not plan to put up any posters on this St. Patrick's Day or, I hope, not for a little while yet. It is worthwhile to debate whether posters have a future. We all know that many community organisations and resident associations in our constituencies always ask us why we put up posters and why we cannot all agree on it. If we do not all agree or if legislation is not introduced to deal with it one must do what everybody else does. At the same time, one wonders what would be the situation if we did not put up posters and we all agreed to abide by this.

I listened to Deputy Creighton making a very relevant point on the competition for spending that takes place between everybody. It is 86 days to the local and European elections and these regulations will be introduced 60 days prior to the elections. Not only in Tallaght but all over the country people are spending huge amounts of money. If one gets the Tallaght Echo this week one will see a big expensive advertisement. I am not picking on those people, I am only stating that we cannot have it every way. If we have control over spending that is fair enough. However, as colleagues stated, in the last local elections and certainly in the last general election a great deal of money was spent by people who were not successful. I fear that if this takes off and people keep spending a massive amount of money in campaigns ordinary community people will no longer be able to progress through the system. I am not crying about this, I am only stating that this system and democracy should be such that everybody has an opportunity. I look forward to strongly supporting the Bill and I appreciate the Ceann Comhairle's courtesy to me.

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