Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following:

"2.—In this Act "Act of 2002" means the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2002.".

I object to the fact that only 40 minutes have been allocated to discuss this important legislation. Be that as it may, I will try to make the best of it. The first amendment is technical in nature.

The Bill proposes a reduction in the number of TDs. Sinn Féin wants to make real savings in the cost of government and in our view this can best be done by cutting the wages of salary holders and officeholders, especially Ministers and senior civil servants, rather than the cosmetic exercises as proposed in the Bill. The Sinn Féin view on multi-seat constituencies is that in the past there have been constituencies with up to five seats. We favour four, five and six-seat constituencies over a larger geographical area. This would better reflect the wishes of the electorate in the representation in the Dáil. The number of people elected to the Dáil from various parties compared with the vote they achieve shows a significant discrepancy. In the past, parties with 3% of the vote have taken eight seats and parties with 7% of the vote have taken four seats.

Sinn Féin asks for the publication in full every year of the accounts of political parties, to be published not later than 31 January. Sinn Féin publishes its accounts for all to see. Political parties are now part-funded by the taxpayer in various ways and their accounts should be published.

On amendment No. 8, in the case of summer elections, many electors may be away on holidays on the polling day. It can be frustrating for electors who may have booked a holiday before an election is called and will then be absent on polling day. This is also the case for patients in hospital on polling day. At the general election, a man gave me his number one vote and he died the following weekend. One of his last acts on this earth was to put a number one beside my name on the ballot paper. The bed of heaven to him and I hope he is looked after in the next life. Facilities have been given to prisoners to vote and we should be able to find some way to facilitate people who are hospitalised on election day so that they are not disenfranchised.

Amendment No. 9 is a proposal regarding the register of electors which is currently in rag order. I do not wish to discredit the electoral system but we cannot continue to limp along from one election to the next with an electoral register which may contain names included four times while other names have been excluded as a result of an administrative error. I appeal to the Minister to use this opportunity to improve the system. My amendment on Committee Stage proposed the use of the PPS number. We must protect the integrity of PPS numbers and I refer to the information that 7.2 million PPS numbers were issued. There is clearly a problem with regard to this number of PPS numbers. Sinn Féin would like this problem resolved. Any abuse of PPS numbers or of the electoral system must be eliminated. However, we cannot stand over an electoral system where, at best, in many counties, the electoral register is 70% accurate. This situation will worsen because people move house more often than in the past, they may live in rented accommodation and others may have emigrated. It is no longer the case that people grow up in one house, get married, buy a house or move into a local authority house and stay there until they die. The population today is more transient and we must find a way of connecting the electoral register to a voter's identity rather than to his or her address. I appeal to the Minister to accept this amendment. Another simple procedure to make the electoral register more accurate would be for the local authority to remove a name automatically from the electoral register once a death certificate has been issued.

I note that the situation is exacerbated by the fact that local authority staff are not available to provide an up-to-date register. The Minister will know from speaking to county managers that most local authorities are not sending out field workers every year to check the validity of the electoral register. Political parties do not have the manpower as in previous decades because they have fewer members. The situation must be remedied. A party colleague of the Minister's, Councillor Bonham, a very good councillor, was elected to Laois County Council by one half or one third of a vote - a fraction of a vote. The count lasted for weeks and court challenges were in prospect. A book was written about it. If the outcome of elections is to be decided by such an arduous process and on the basis of a percentage of a vote and second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth preferences, the priority should be to compile an accurate register of electors.

Sinn Féin complained about inaccuracies in the register and about the multiple registration of people at a property in a county. A large number of people were registered at the same property and a certain candidate topped the poll in that area who had never come near such a result in a previous election. Sinn Féin has a genuine interest in an accurate and fair electoral register in order that every person has one vote and one vote only.

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