Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

While the Senator was talking I said I intend introducing guidelines which will be available to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment and Local Government. I made that point clear in the Dáil. I hope the committee will have a full debate involving Members from both Houses and all parties. I will take guidance from the committee on this issue. I am very open on this issue, which we must address.

I also said it is not rocket science. The technology exists. If there was a bar code on each PPS card people could key in their PPS numbers in their local post offices and we could automatically register everybody. There are a million things that can be done. I do not want to set up a high-tech system so shrouded in mystique that the public loses faith in it. There are simple ways of doing this. Postmen know who lives at what address. I will make it clear to local authorities that if they do not clean up their act I will look for someone else who will do it for them.