Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I welcome this independent commission's report on the redrawing of constituency boundaries. I listened to Senator Minihan's comments on county loyalties and recalled that in the 1930s west Donegal was in the same constituency as Leitrim. This is something people in Donegal would not understand today. We do not have a problem with county loyalty in Donegal as we have both Donegal North-East and Donegal South-West. County loyalty is as important in politics as in other domains. When we mention county loyalties, people generally think of sport such as hurling, football, soccer, etc. County loyalty should transcend sport and other areas into politics.

On the redrawing of the constituency boundaries in Donegal, Letterkenny is expanding at an alarming rate. That is progress and we must move with the times. As a consequence of the population rising in Letterkenny, the geographical spread in Donegal North-East has decreased. Consequently, Donegal South-West which has a smaller population base is expanding in terms of territory. An issue arising from this — I do not know whether it should fit in with this Bill or should be an issue for the local authority — is that the Letterkenny electoral area now straddles two constituencies. Forgive my ignorance, but I do not know whether this happens in other constituencies. This straddling is a bit of an anomaly for much of the politics within both constituencies because, while it is a distinct electoral area, there is a straddling of both divides. There should be an onus on the electoral commission to give some acknowledgment that electoral area boundaries should fit succinctly into constituencies. That debate should be advanced at some stage. I welcome the report drawn up by the independent commission. It is important that it is passed by the Oireachtas as quickly as possible.

The other issue of concern to me relates to voting. I intend introducing amendments on Committee Stage with respect to voting, accountability and transparency during elections. Two weeks ago The Sunday Tribune front page story and editorial concerned almost 800,000 people who are on the register but who are not eligible to vote. We have a serious problem with regard to the electoral register and it is urgent that we as legislators tackle it head on, not as a party but as a political issue. On the day of the 2004 local elections people phoned me in Letterkenny to ask whether they should use their vote in Milford or Letterkenny, because they were on the electoral register twice. One person phoned to say he had five voting cards as a consequence of migrating from Donegal South-West to Letterkenny and of moving house. This is something we must address.

I hope this House will consider the amendments I will propose in this regard. All we want is transparency and some accountability. As matters stand, anybody's name can be put on the register. Osama bin Laden could be on the register in Leitrim without any check being made providing we made up an address for him. There is no detection of irregularities because while the matter is left to the local authority, it does not have the proper resources available to it to deal with the upkeep of the register. The matter is urgent and should be tackled head on. This may be an aside from the Bill before us, but it is an important issue. Some 800,000 people who are not entitled to a vote are on the electoral registers, from Malin Head to Mizen Head. We must raise serious questions in this regard.