Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I support the amendment. I had no opportunity to address this matter on Second or Committee Stages because of time constraints but this is a sensible amendment. We must accept that the current system of counting is not simply unfair but inaccurate. It can be said with absolute certainty that since the foundation of parliamentary and local government democracy in Ireland we have used this counting system on dozens of occasions. Whether in Dáil or local authority elections, there have been occasions when five or six votes have separated candidates and the wrong people have been elected. Those elected by the people were not allocated the seats to which they were entitled because of the counting system in place. I accept what Senator Quinn and others have said, that this is not particularly urgent today, but in another sense it is very urgent. The system of counting votes we have had in place for decades is not just unfair but inaccurate and it has resulted in the wrong people being allocated seats in town and county councils and perhaps also here in the Oireachtas.

That has to be addressed. I attended several meetings of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment and Local Government and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government gave an assurance that electronic voting phase two, as we called it, would resolve this problem and that the technology would be in place. I could not understand why it would not be in place first day but it would be unforgivable if we do not give a clear indication that once electronic voting is introduced we will have no more random sampling. We will have the correct counting of votes and those who win seats will be those who got enough votes to do so, not those elected by a quirk. I accept that only applies to a minority but it has undoubtedly happened. We recall candidates being defeated or winning by between three and 12 votes. On that random basis of counting, there would have been inaccurate results. If we are advocates of democracy and of doing the job properly, it is essential that we do not have to await phase two of electronic counting. On the first occasion in which electronic voting and counting takes place it must count the entire value of each vote cast and the result must truly represent the will of the people rather than the random, hop of the ball system which we have allowed to remain in place for too long.

I suspect candidates have been elected to all levels of Government, local and national, who do not fully understand the system of proportional representation. Certainly that applies to many of those who cast their votes. If the hundreds of thousands who cast their votes at general elections realised the last seat is given out on a random basis, where there is a narrow margin of victory or defeat, and naturally can be wrong, there would be an outcry. We must provide for an electronic system which will ensure that will not happen again and that the candidates with sufficient support from the people will win the seats.