Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join with Senator Darragh O'Brien in commending all of those who stood as candidates in the local and European elections and congratulate all of those candidates who were successful and commiserate with all of those who were defeated. I would agree with him that the way in which the counts have played out has shown again the need for a review of the system of counting votes. I would agree also about the need for an electoral commission. I was struck by something Mr. John Bowman said late on one of the nights on RTE about the visible way in which counts are dealt with here and in which transfers are made, and that people see how their votes are going in the PR system. I agree that is a valuable part of the democratic process.

Senator Darragh O'Brien mentioned the length of some of the European counts. In a Dún Laoghaire ward, for example, a count has been adjourned until tomorrow. When one is looking at counts going into a fourth day for some candidates, one is talking about Wednesday or Thursday before people know. We saw candidates in my area being elected at 3.30 a.m. and 4 a.m. in the morning. That is not an appropriate way to do business. Those who were involved in the counting worked extremely hard, but it is not reasonable to expect people to work under those conditions or to expect candidates to be hanging on for such long hours in count centres. We need to look again, without going to electronic voting, at how we can make our counting more efficient.

I will comment a little further on my party's result. The Labour Party received a clear message from the electorate, as we saw our vote "collapsing" - there is no other word for it. I wish to pay tribute to my former party leader, Deputy Gilmore, who, as everyone will be aware, resigned yesterday with great dignity and took responsibility for the poor result of the party and the poor showing. People from all sides were respectful of that decision in the commentary since then. We are now in a contest for the leadership in the Labour Party and that will play out. It is certainly also time-----