Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

Politicians should be extremely concerned about an article that appeared in one of the Sunday newspapers that claimed that up to 800,000 polling cards were issued which were surplus to requirement. We should all recognise that the present system concerning local government administration and its approach to electoral registers has failed. Any Senator who checks the register in his or her own area will quickly discover that it is out of date. We should contrast it with the situation in the North of Ireland, where the electoral register is independent of the Government and, according to all accounts, seems to be working effectively. The present system in this country will lend itself to widespread fraud. All we need is 8,000 people to vote fraudulently, representing 1% of the surplus polling cards, and politicians' jobs could be lost. It is incumbent on the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to look closely at this situation and to outline his intentions to this House. The present system should be changed. There will be a census next year so we will have a chance to make changes in this country in order to change the existing system.

The system used to work effectively in the past, mainly due to the mainstream political parties which had a very vigilant approach to the registers in their area. Changes have taken place in every town around Ireland and we cannot keep up with it. It is time for urgent change.