John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is not the potential in terms of the facility that the franchise section has as there are only eight officials working in it.

Other Members and other practising politicians consistently raise with me the fact that electoral registers are not as accurate as they could or should be. It has been a political priority for me for the past 12 months to get modernisation of the register moving.

Preparation of the scoping document on improvements to the register and proposals for online registration is now well under way and at an advanced stage of drafting. The Government will make a decision on this, hopefully, before the summer break or immediately after the return in the autumn. The proposal is to commence that work nationally before the end of this year.

I do not want to dampen the Deputy's enthusiasm and I acknowledge that online voting is different from the electronic voting we had previously. However, we should all remember the public backlash against the e-voting system that was introduced. The strong view of general public was that the principle of using a pencil and paper at the ballot box was still valued. That is not to say that as technology improves, we cannot look at online voting. Online registration and improving the register must remain the priority.

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