Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

There are 300,000 more people on the summation of all registers than are eligible to vote, according to the census. This issue is serious regardless of whether the figure is 300,000, or 800,000. The first figure is the lowest figure and the latter figure is extrapolated to take into account numbers of people who are on the register when they should not be, people who should be there and are not, and people who are deceased and may be on the register to vote for a particular candidate. The figure is serious because even if it is the lowest figure, 300,000 people of the 3.002 million on the combined voting register are on it in error. Only 2.71 million people are eligible to vote by age according to the census.

I have given this issue some thought since beginning my term in this Department. I indicated clearly in the Dáil that I wish the guidelines to be written as I do not think that local authorities are doing their job in this respect sufficiently well. In some cases the work is excellent but in others it is appalling.