Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, to the House for the debate on this motion on the establishment of an electoral commission. He is one of the few senior Ministers who regularly attends the Seanad. As an Opposition Member, and like many of my colleagues, I appreciate this. I hope he takes the Opposition's views on the motion on board as it will be of great benefit for democracy.

Senator Boyle was surprised that no amendment to the motion had been tabled. The proposal for an independent electoral commission was part of Fine Gael's election manifesto and I was pleased the proposal was included in the programme for Government. Like many other proposals in the programme, the devil is in the detail. By what criteria will the electoral commission be established? What resources will be allocated to support it? A realistic timeframe for the delivery of the commission needs to be put in place. Its establishment would be welcome to oversee an independent and credible democratic system.

Electronic voting, to which Senator de Búrca referred, has garnered much criticism and negative publicity over the past five years. Perhaps an electoral commission might take the hard decision to abandon the electronic voting machines lying in storage and costing the State much money. If the Minister made that decision sooner rather than later, he would get much credit.

I assume the commission would oversee the drawing up of constituency boundaries and local electoral areas. The demographics of the east coast and regional towns have changed dramatically in the past ten years. While submissions have been invited for the current review of local authority areas, the review needs to be done quickly.

Cities, counties and towns should not be divided by obvious geographical boundaries such as mountain ranges because it is not feasible. Dáil constituency boundaries often overlap with local authority electoral areas which causes much confusion with many constituents, not to mind public representatives. For example, the Suir electoral area is for Waterford County Council but a quarter of the area falls to the Dáil Tipperary South constituency, creating much confusion on representation.

The Minister seems in favour of larger local electoral areas. I am concerned such areas may tip the balance in favour of representatives from large urban areas while representation for outlying rural areas will suffer. For example, the population of Tramore, County Waterford, has increased dramatically in recent years. In next year's local election, the town's large population could elect the majority of councillors while the outlying rural areas could be under-represented. Representation of our large rural population must be taken into account.

The Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government recently visited the independent Electoral Office for Northern Ireland, headed by Douglas Bain, from which there are many lessons to be learned. It carries out much of the work proposed for our electoral commission. Northern Ireland also has an independent Electoral Commission. Not to confuse the two, the Electoral Commission deals with the same matters as our Standards in Public Office Commission. I assume the Minister is proposing an amalgamation of the two functions when establishing the proposed electoral commission.

The Electoral Office for Northern Ireland administers elections and compiles the electoral register. It has achieved high levels of efficiency in compiling an accurate electoral register. It also has responsibility for polling stations and the running of elections. The key to its success is its independence and its permanent and dedicated staff. It staff's day-to-day function is to ensure the electoral register is kept updated and to promote the registration of new voters. A permanent staff can dedicate resources to it, not like the present system in the Republic where local authorities, already stretched for resources, allocate staff in a piecemeal fashion to electoral registration. That is why we have a disaster of an electoral register.

It is a disgrace that one year after the 2006 census, many people were disenfranchised for the general election. This year's annual budget for the electoral office in Northern Ireland is £2.8 million, approximately €3.5 million. We spent €5 million before the previous general election trying to update the electoral register and it was still a disgrace.

Lessons can be learned and the tabling of this motion shows the Green Party is genuine in its attempt to address this matter. Fine Gael will support the Minister as best we can but only when we see the detail.

Senator de Búrca referred to the use of personal public service numbers for electoral identification purposes. Northern Ireland has a system of electoral identity cards which is why there is much accuracy and efficiency with its register. As these are verified ID cards, they can be used by youths to gain access to pubs and clubs or to buy alcohol, and airline security will accept them. It is a multi-use card and we should consider its introduction. The Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is considering this. With regard to the national insurance number, the health service in the North has a reciprocal arrangement with the electoral office whereby it notifies the office if a person moves from one location to another so that the electoral register is updated. Much good work is being done in this area.

I welcome this debate. We have much ground to make up in terms of promoting democracy in Ireland and the electoral commission can play an important independent role in this. All political parties play their part in promoting democracy, but the electoral commission can play a special role by promoting the independent view and developing ways to generate interest among our youth. It should work with youth organisations and in conjunction with school civics programmes to encourage a realistic view of engagement with the democratic process. It is essential for the future of this country that young people take an interest.

There are some stark statistics in this regard. In one survey, just over 40% of young adults aged 18 to 19 and only 53% of those aged 20 to 24 indicated they had voted in an election. Voter participation increases rapidly with age thereafter, reaching a high of almost 90% for those aged 65 to 74. That tells me that although people take a deeper interest in the democratic process as they get older, we have a major job to convince our young people to engage in this process.

I welcome the possibility of an electoral commission. It will have a significant role to play. Does the Minister have a timeframe for its delivery? Will it be resourced properly, as is the one in Northern Ireland? If the Minister ensures it is, there will be considerable benefits for the democratic process.