Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

Confidence in our electoral process is absolutely essential. One of the great hallmarks of our democracy since the foundation of the State in the early 1920s is that the electorate, irrespective of its views on party politics and politicians, has genuine confidence in the manner in which people are elected. One of the great advantages of the existing electoral system is its transparency. It can be seen in operation, it takes a long time to count the votes and, consequently, it is well covered by the media. Furthermore, one can enter the count centre. We should not underestimate these factors.

If a trade union wants to conduct an election, it hands over the operation of that election to an independent body outside its control to ensure the result is authentic and transparent. I cannot understand why the franchise section of the Minister's Department is not entirely independent. This is a very important point of principle. We have a commission on standards in politics, the Standards in Public Office Commission, and a long-standing commission responsible for the division of constituency boundaries for European and Dáil elections. I cannot understand why we cannot have an independent, stand-alone agency to run elections that is outside the control of a Minister. Ministers are elected in the same way as everybody else, they are members of a political party unless they are independent and they have a vested interest in the outcome of an election.

When this issue was first raised, I was astonished that the Minister, Deputy Cullen, allowed himself to be open to the charge, which the Opposition would inevitably make, that he was director of elections for Fianna Fáil. I do not know why he allowed this to obtain. So many aspects of our elections are already controlled by agencies that the franchise section of the Department should become a stand-alone section. It would obviously be accountable to the House through its various committees but should be completely independent from the arm of Government.

Some days ago I noticed the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government set the date for the European elections, which we all knew were to be held. As a matter of principle, this date should be set by someone other than the Minister, who is a member of a political party and who has a vested interest in the outcome of the election. This is the only aspect of electoral law we need to examine. Many other countries have independent, stand-alone agencies that conduct elections and which are responsible for the operation and results of those elections. We should adopt the same approach.