James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I would be obliged if the Minister of State could outline the exact consultation that took place prior to the drawing up of the Electoral Bill and if, for example, his Department was warned that certain provisions in it relating to non-party candidates were likely to prove unconstitutional. If the answer is in the affirmative, I am puzzled as to why the legislation was permitted to proceed in such questionable circumstances. Has anybody in the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government thought about the waste of public funds and Oireachtas time that is caused by such an unprofessional approach to legislation?

I am not going to categorise the long list of money-wasting blunders and general fiascoes perpetrated by the Government during the past ten years because everyone is quite familiar with them. However, the electronic voting fiasco and the mess relating to the electoral register mess, which saw the names of thousands throughout the country and in my constituency of Longford-Westmeath being left off the register, cannot be ignored, especially in light of the nature of this debate.