Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

I want to raise an issue that was raised previously by Senator Hayes and other Senators and on which it is important we have a debate. The draft register of electors has been prepared by the various local authorities. In the South Dublin County Council area and elsewhere across the country, the system for preparing it has changed. A form was dropped in the letter-boxes of people who were not at home when the officials checking the register called around. If the recipients did not return this form to their respective county councils, they were deleted from the register. I anticipate that thousands of people will have been deleted from the register by the time of next year's general election, despite their having been on the register in previous years, during which they did not have to return a form to the county council.

This will become a major problem and we must address it. It is not satisfactory. The county councils will have information days to try to get people to check the register for their names and to have their names added if they have been deleted. This will not be enough. The officials will have to call to houses again and put people back on the register so they can exercise their democratic right to vote. We should have a debate on this urgently and have the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in the House to tell us how he will deal with the problem. It will be a much greater problem than that outlined in the survey carried out by the Young Fianna Fáil group last year. We must act quickly.