Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I move:

That Seanad Éireann supports the commitment in the Programme for Government to work to bring into being an Electoral Commission.

It is a pleasure to move this motion this evening in Green Party Private Members' time. I welcome the fact that an amendment to the motion has not been tabled and take it as a general degree of interest among all the parties in this Chamber in working towards a necessary reform of our political system.

The programme for Government contains a number of measures designed to reform the political system. In a previous session in this Chamber we discussed the possibilities of Seanad reform and some weeks from now we will see the first phase of a process of local government reform with the publication of the Green Paper. The issue of an electoral commission is a third part of that package of reform measures and it is one that is treated emphatically in the programme for Government. Under the heading of "Electoral Reform", the programme for Government states:

We will establish an independent Electoral Commission to take responsibility for electoral administration and oversight. This Commission will:

Implement modern efficient practices for the conduct of elections, becoming a standing Constituency Commission for the revision of constituency boundaries. We will, in its terms of reference, stress the importance of avoiding, where at all possible, the division of small counties or small parts of counties into separate constituencies.

Take charge of the compilation of a new national rolling electoral register.

Assume the functions of the Standards in Public Office Commission in relation to electoral expenditure and examine the issue of financing of the political system.

The broad range of support for the idea of an electoral commission is based on the fact that it will not only help improve the business of politics in this country but make the nature of elections more efficient. What we are talking about in a stand alone, independent body is incorporating many of the functions that are dispersed through our current system. The Minister is here this evening representing the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, having specific responsibility for local government but also for the electoral process itself. Many of those functions are devolved to local authorities, not only in terms of the electoral register but also in providing the personnel needed to run an election, especially an election count. The time has come to bring all those functions into one body that will provide a consistency and a cohesiveness that has been lacking to date.

Electoral commissions operate effectively in other jurisdictions and I hope the Minister, in initiating the process of bringing about this reform and achieving levels of support from other parties in that process, will instigate an all-party process of consultation to ensure that the electoral commission promised in the programme for Government will come into being with the greatest possible levels of support. I emphasise that because the programme for Government has been often criticised in that events overtake matters and what comes out as a good intention turns into an aspiration and an unachievable goal. The programme for Government is emphatic in regard to an electoral commission. It does not state that we will investigate or consider an electoral commission. It states, "We will establish an independent Electoral Commission ....." and that must be on the basis of all-party consultation and support.

There have been difficulties in the past regarding the compilation of the electoral register. Questions arise about the degree of national co-ordination that exists in compiling that register, the level of effort and willingness each local authority can put into the compilation of its own local register and the consistency that applies throughout the country. A national body would address many of those concerns.

A constant situation arises in terms of electoral boundary commissions which are established as and when censuses are completed. They have been independent for the past number of decades but they are a separate organisation. In the remit of an electoral commission we may avoid some of the controversies that occur from time to time. It has been the practice in the previous electoral boundary commission reports that Ministers for the Environment do not interfere with its recommendations. They have been instituted, as suggested, and I believe that will be the case again but to put a Minister for the Environment into a situation where he or she has the ability to decide whether the recommendations are right or not is a political pressure that should not exist in the system and one that would be alleviated by the existence of an independent electoral commission.

We are all familiar with the Standards in Public Office Commission. It is a body that has improved the public perception of politics and helped those of us involved in political life to better account for ourselves. It is not dealing with all the areas with which it could deal and is probably not operating to the level of support, in terms of resources, that it needs. A stand alone electoral commission that would not only absorb the current functions of the Standards in Public Office Commission but enhance those functions would improve the quality of democracy in politics.

The running of an election in terms of its personnel, the location of the polling stations, the appointment of polling clerks and election count supervisors and deciding who participates in counts are functions that are partly national and partly devolved at a local level. We must have more consistency in that regard to ensure those areas are properly tackled.

It is in the last line of the section in the programme for Government on electoral reform on which most public and political debate will be needed. The programme for Government refers to not only assuming the functions of the Standards in Public Office Commission but also examining the financing of the political system, and different political parties have different approaches to that. The purpose of the motion is not to go solely into that area but I would argue that an independent, stand alone electoral commission will take much of the unnecessary political debate out of that and make it a topic of public interest if it is done by an independent body. I refer not only to the way money is collected in elections but the way it is spent.

Many of us believe the current regulations, while they have introduced some measure of fairness into a system that was not always fair, still do not properly account for the nature of expenditure in elections. After the release of statistics following the 2007 general election, I was portrayed as the third highest spender in my constituency which I know not to be a fact because the regulations account for the three weeks of the election campaign and not the many months of political activities that take place before that.

Another aspect which is not taken into account is that, while political benefits for those in public office, in terms of paid political staff, access to Oireachtas facilities and the like, are measured, the money that goes into individual campaigns from people who do not hold public office is not. Our systems of measurement are unbalanced. The mechanisms we use are not only unfair to those who take part in the election process but also to those expected to police these systems. If one speaks informally to those who work with the Standards in Public Office Commission one begins to understand they implement existing legislation to the best of their ability but they are increasingly frustrated that this legislation does not allow them to do the job they could be doing rather than the job they are doing.

I would like this debate to address how to make the existing system work better. The programme for Government is clear that the way to do it is through a stand-alone independent electoral commission. As this will necessitate a consultation process prior to new legislation and the formation of a body, all of us involved in public life have a responsibility to put interim steps in place. If we have a piecemeal system between national and local government how can we make it work more effectively until we have in place an independent electoral commission?

I am interested to hear how those in the Opposition benches, who I take it from their failure to table an amendment are largely supportive of what we suggest, make particular——