Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I strongly welcome the establishment of the commission. It is something that has been signalled and worked on for a long time. Having an independent electoral commission to look after this essential part of our democracy and everything to do with the electoral processes is an important part of our democratic process. It is very clear there is a range of experience within the appointments that have been announced. During the legislative and pre-legislative process on this, we received strong contributions from a number of groups which are marginalised and have lower levels of participation in the democratic and electoral process and some very good points were made by representatives from Traveller organisations, people with disabilities, migrants, and a whole range of civil society groups. There could well be some disappointment in that these more marginalised groups may not see themselves fully represented in the four appointments announced. I note Professor Fennell is a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and that is significant given that organisation's work in these areas. That will be useful in terms of the contribution that can be made. It is very important that this is one of the areas to the forefront of the commission's work.

During the legislative process on this matter, I raised a number of very important things the commission will have to work on such as voter education and participation and I was told that rather than many of the amendments I was putting forward being accepted, this would be work the commission would be doing and prioritising. It is absolutely key work.

I give the example of New Zealand and the electoral commission there and the really excellent work it has done. It provides a very good model by having youth advocates who drive up voter registration levels; outreach to people who are homeless in order to get them registered and participating in voting; accessible social media enabling people who are deaf and hard of hearing to use sign language when voting and facilitating people who are blind to vote using a telephone dictation service, for example, when voting; and indeed, allowing for early voting to increase turnout. Much good work is being done in New Zealand and in other jurisdictions to increase participation, which is healthy for democracy and for combatting any feelings of people being left out, excluded or alienated. That is very important in terms of the society we are trying to build.

I emphasise the importance of those areas and look forward to the work the commission will do on that. The commission has much work to do in these different areas and it is going to take a number of years. In time, it would be helpful to get some sort of an outline or a plan from the commission as to how it intends to approach that. The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage would welcome information from the commission on how it intends to proceed. That is important.

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