Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I agree with what has been said. In fairness to the Minister, the issues we are raising in these amendments might be worthy of a more lengthy debate in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment and Local Government. I hope the Minister will be in a position over the next 12 months to introduce another electoral amendment Bill to deal with these specific issues. There are two aspects to this, first, getting the register correct and, second, ease of voting.

I agree with what my colleagues said in regard to the register of voters. In politics, we are much too easily led by conspiratorial-type theories. I have seen the names of people who might be 80 or 90 years of age disappear from the register on a once-off basis. Presumably it is a print error, but it is unfortunate for the people involved. If the media reports referred to by Senator McHugh and Senator O'Rourke are correct, it is a matter which requires an indepth investigation. We will probably have to proceed along the lines suggested by Senator Browne and others that the PPS number, which every citizen possesses, could be used in this regard.

I support Senator Moylan's remarks regarding postal votes for people on holidays. Last year, I wrote to the Minister's predecessor in this regard, to which I received a negative reply. I appreciate that the extension of postal voting must be examined closely. The system appeared to be a great idea during the British general election until it got underway. Between 15% and 20% of the entire electorate in some constituencies had postal votes, which gave rise to some suspicions. During an election campaign, it is disappointing to meet people who would like to vote before going on holidays. Perhaps we can examine some type of controlled system to deal with this issue. While we will not find an answer to these questions today, perhaps the Minister will examine the whole system of registration, access to voting and extending in a reasonable fashion postal voting. He might consider bringing the issue before us by way of additional legislation in a few months' time. It is important for the Oireachtas to try to ensure that in a functioning democracy people who are entitled to vote are registered and those who wish to vote, no matter where they are located on election day, are given the opportunity to do so.

I wish to repeat what I said on Second Stage in that putting in place a voting window of perhaps a day and half should be considered. I suggested that voting for national elections should begin at 5 p.m. on Friday and continue until 10 p.m. and it should take place all day Saturday. During the local elections last year, the voting trend appeared to increase. However, the general trend over the past 20 years is that the numbers of people voting has decreased. If this is to be reversed, we must try to facilitate people to the maximum. We have tried voting on Wednesdays and Fridays. The Tipperary South by-election took place on Saturday, which was quite successful.