Déirdre de Búrca (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, to the House. I also welcome this opportunity to discuss the establishment of an independent electoral commission which, as Senator Boyle stated, forms part of the programme for Government. The Green Party was active in negotiating its place in the programme for Government. It is important to improve the electoral system because the effect of this would be to increase public support and confidence in the system. I am happy to second the motion proposed by Senator Boyle.

I also welcome the fact that the Minister has taken action on this commitment so quickly. The Minister is developing the reputation of being a reforming Minister. Given his wide brief, he has taken action on a number of key areas contained in the programme for Government although he has only been in office for several months.

The establishment of a full-time and independent electoral commission is a priority. It is a challenging and ambitious endeavour because it will involve consolidating much of the existing electoral legislation. Over the years, many changes have been made to our electoral system in an incremental way. The aim of establishing an electoral commission will be to consolidate the legislation, make it far more coherent and modernise the system.

An issue which I hope the electoral commission will address is one which was live before the general election last year, namely, the voter registration system. This needs to be radically overhauled and for a long time, the Green Party has called for it to be changed. We believe the way voters are registered should be linked to the PPS system and that people should automatically be registered on the basis of their national insurance numbers.

Unfortunately, the debacle which happened several months prior to the general election, when it became obvious that serious inaccuracies in the electoral register had developed over years, bred a certain lack of confidence in the election process itself on the part of the public. Many people in my constituency of Wicklow contacted me because they were unsure as to whether they were registered to vote. Some were alarmed because they had been left out of the loop and were not included in the electoral register. They were concerned they would be deprived of the important opportunity to vote.

A priority for the electoral commission should be to take responsibility for the voter registration system, overhaul it and establish a rolling electoral register. For a long time, the Green Party has advocated extending the option of postal voting to all registered voters and to explore the options presented by e-voting. Increasingly, we find young people in particular find it difficult to be in a certain place on voting day to cast their votes. Often, people are disenfranchised because of problems with geographical location. For this reason, the opportunities presented by e-voting mean we can be more flexible in our approach to allowing people opportunities to participate on election day.

The electoral commission should also address the decline in voter turnout. This should be of concern to all political parties because over the past decade or two a trend has appeared whereby fewer voters turn out, not only in general elections but also in local and European elections. It is in all our interests that we have a thriving democracy and that people participate and feel a sense of ownership over the electoral decisions made. This can only be done by participating in electing politicians to office.

Unfortunately, the trend showing a decline in voter turnout suggests a voter education role for the electoral commission, with a far more vigorous programme particularly targeted at disadvantaged areas to encourage people to vote and see the importance of voting and to teach them what the political system can achieve. This requires the support of the electorate and voter education should be an important part of the commission's function.

Election spending is another issue touched on by Senator Boyle. This is an important issue when we consider some of the major elections in the United States where it appears the availability of large sums of money allows certain candidates to outspend and therefore outdo their rivals. We would not want to see such a situation arising here where only those political parties which are well bank-rolled could afford to campaign effectively and therefore be in a much better position to achieve good election results.

It is in everybody's interest that we have a fair and level playing field and that election spending is controlled to a certain extent so that we avoid a situation written about by Greg Palast in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. I hope we will always have a situation whereby our democracy is not linked to the amount of money a candidate can afford to spend. Reasonable limits on election spending should be set on all parties and the Green Party has always supported this.

The electoral commission will take on some of the functions of the Standards in Public Office Commission. I understand these will include not only election spending but also the standards in public office function of the existing commission. There has been a good deal of concern in recent years about the issue of standards in public office. Some incidents in the local government decision-making process have caused people to look for tighter scrutiny and accountability, especially in planning decisions which can be, by their very nature, controversial. It is important there is always a sense that local authority decisions are made for the right reasons and in the public interest.

The Standards in Public Office Commission has always had an important independent function in investigating standards with Oireachtas Members. I suggest to the Minister that the proposed electoral commission should have responsibility for ethics standards in local government. The Planning and Development Act 2000, which deals with ethics in local government, allows local authorities to investigate themselves when complaints are made against them about unethical practices. This does not conform to any national or international best practice which would not expect a body to investigate complaints made against it.

Establishing an investigative function such as this in the proposed independent electoral commission would be very much in the public interest. If a complaint were made about a local authority, the independent and impartial body could investigate it to decide whether it deserved further investigation or was vexatious without any basis.

Giving this function to the proposed independent electoral commission will instil greater public confidence in local government. I hope the Minister will ensure the commission has all the powers it needs to ensure the electoral system is improved, modernised and serves the public interest as well as possible.