Dominic Hannigan (Labour)

I want to be clear that I understand this. It is important how we distribute the surpluses when it comes to the election. Section 16 states:

The Local Elections Regulations are amended by substituting the following sub-article for sub-article (8) of article 83:

"(8) The returning officer shall not transfer the surplus of a candidate deemed to be elected whenever that surplus, together with any other surplus not transferred, is less than both the difference between the quota and the number of votes credited to the highest continuing candidate and the difference between the numbers of the votes credited to the two lowest continuing candidates and, in cases where the lowest candidate, or someone on his or her behalf, made a deposit in accordance with article 15 at the election concerned, either—

(a) the number of votes credited to the lowest candidate is greater than one quarter of the quota, or

(b) the sum of the number of votes credited to the lowest candidate together with that surplus and any other surplus not transferred is not greater than one quarter of the quota.".

I would be concerned that such guidance will be difficult to implement or explain in the heat of an election count, especially, for instance, on the eighth or ninth count. In some cases it might be very late into the night or well into the morning when two or three votes here or there could be the difference between being elected or eliminated or not being elected. I would be concerned about how understandable such clauses are. This can make or break an election. It can swing on the presence or absence of a comma, and in that sentence of 100 or 110 words there is one comma. I would ask the Minister of State for an explanation of what that means merely so that we can be crystal clear on the record about what this will mean when it comes to transfers of surpluses.

As he will be well aware, one of the reasons we withdrew the electronic voting machines was because questions were raised about how they distributed surpluses. I could be wrong here and if so, I stand corrected. I am getting a nod from Senator Ellis. I remember at the time going through the technical issues and it is quite a tedious process to work out exactly how these things are done. We paid experts in mathematics, statistics and computer programming to design these systems, processes and codes in the first instances, and they got it wrong. In the heat of the day when people's blood is up and they are concerned that they are about to win or lose a seat, we expect the poor returning officer to go to his briefcase, pull out this legislation and read this out.

I am sure the Minister of State has a great deal more experience than I have of elections. Having looked at his electoral history, I would say at this stage he has contested in the order of ten general elections.