Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

No, unfortunately.

With regard to Senator Cummins's question on whether the field work has been followed up, I issued a circular letter to councils advising them that when I checked the list of deletions in respect of cases in my area — a list which Senator O'Rourke has not yet received which I regret because local authorities should operate within the spirit of this process — I noted that in some areas there were a disproportionate number of deletions. For example, in one housing estate of 100 houses, there may be 30 deletions, in another housing estate of a similar size, there may be 30 deletions, which is proportionate, but in another housing estate of a similar size there may be 60 deletions. Clearly, there could not be twice the number of deletions in one estate proportionate to the number in another estate of a similar size. In areas where a disproportionate level of deletions have been recorded, we have told the field workers to return to those areas to check the register.

I, like Senator Bannon, am diligent in the matter of the voting register. One of my field workers, a good hardworking cumann member, was in Wolfe Tone Square this morning and discovered council staff were doing precisely what Senator Cummins asked about. Where disproportionate deletions have been recorded councils should exercise prudence.

I wish to mention another matter to Senator Bannon, although my colleagues might not agree with my mentioning it to him but I will mention it to him because I like him and I want to give him every possible opportunity——-