Caít Keane (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss this Private Members' motion. I compliment the Independent Senator on tabling the motion. Even though the establishment of an electoral commission is outlined in the programme for Government, it is no harm to remind the Government what is in that programme to ensure that it is implemented. The establishment of an electoral commission is an integral part of that.

Since 2011, the Government has demonstrated a commitment to political reform having implemented many of the reform policies outlined in the programme for Government but obviously it is not possible to do everything at once. We have embarked on an ambitious programme of political reform. Six referenda have been put to the people and two more referenda were announced yesterday, which I welcome. We had the children's rights referendum and the establishment of a Court of Appeal.

The Constitutional Convention has been a huge success, acting as a platform for political ideas and debate. It has brought citizens closer to the heart of policy formation and that is very much what is required. Citizens feel disengaged and disenfranchised and they may be at the heart of the problem of why people, in particular young people, do not turn out to vote. Members of the public have been brought much closer to the legislative process but a great deal of work needs to be done. The Oireachtas committees have been reformed somewhat but not enough. The reform with regard to the pre-legislative stage allows members of the public to have an input when laws are being drafted and that is good but more needs to be done. I would welcome the establishment of an electoral commission.

The Government has a series of Dáil reforms but often they are a one day wonder and then forgotten about. The expenses of Deputies and Senators are now vouched, and there has been 20% reduction in ministerial salaries, and Ministers no longer have drivers. We have more transparency. There has been a reduction in the number of those in the public service. There has been a good deal of local government reform. The Government has added an additional 74 Dáil sitting days during its first two years in office but, as I said, that is a one-day wonder. Much reform has taken place and it must be acknowledged, but reform in terms of the establishment of an electoral commission needs to take place rapidly.

The newly introduced system of Topical Issues provides a much better framework for TDs to raise matters. Independent TDs have introduced some good Private Members' Bills, some of which have been accepted in this House. Reform must continue in the Seanad and it can lead the way. We have had the introduction of a gender quota and I welcome that. It is the first in our history and hopefully we will see more women being elected to Parliament.

As outlined by the previous speakers, a report of 2008, commissioned by the Department of the Environment, recommended the establishment of an electoral commission. It outlined a range of functions the commission would be expected to perform and in which those functions would be vested simultaneously or, if not, the sequence of transfer of functions to it from, perhaps, the Standards in Public Office Commission or the amalgamation with it.

A variety of approaches have been recommended in that report and they are worth consideration. There were three or four options put forward in it. It would be a new body and all the functions it would be intended to perform from the beginning would be conferred on it. Obviously that would require legislation, but if that were delayed, it might be worth looking at SIPO to see if it could be taken as a basis for the new electoral commission and the necessary amendments could be made to confer a complete set of new functions upon SIPO. It would have to be an independent body with the functions of SIPO looking at the constituency commission, the referendum commission and the registrar of political parties. All these functions would be transferred from the Department to this independent body. Proper management of the electoral process, as the other speakers have spoken about, requires attention to a wide range of matters in the lead up to every election with reviews of the constituency boundary - some counties have done very well on that but some have fallen down badly - and maintaining the register of electors.

A recommendation to be put forward is that one could register to vote online seven days before an election, but we have seen that abuse can happen here and in other countries with people trying to outdo the system. Steps would have to be taken if an online system was put in place to ensure that could not happen and that the system would be one person, one vote. The candidate nomination process, scrutinising broadcasting coverage during the election campaign, managing the vote process on polling day, the election counts and the reporting of results would have to come within the remit of this new body, as would the monitoring of the revenue-raising and expenditure of the parties. The Government has made many changes in that area and in ensuring that there is transparency in revenue-raising among the political parties, which was not there previously.

In more than two thirds of the world's democracies, the bulk of these activities are carried out by an electoral commission that operates independently of government, thus ensuring a high level of electoral integrity. This has been recommended since 2008. The Government has it as a commitment in the programme for Government. The Government is totally committed to establishing it, I understand it will be established and I hope the Minister will commit to a date for its establishment today and that it will be reformist and progressive.

Ireland is behind the curve internationally in having the management of our electoral process dispersed across the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the 31 local authorities and a clutch of agencies, including the Standards in Public Office Commission, the registrar of parties, the constituency commissions, referendum commission and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. I am sure I have omitted some. The electoral commission should be given the widest possible remit. As I alluded to, and as recommended in the 2008 report, the renaming of SIPO and adding a few additional functions is not sufficient.

That would be unacceptable, not that I have heard it coming from anybody, but that is my personal view of what the electoral commission should look like. It should not be the job of the commission to oversee these roles, working in conjunction with the local authorities. Following best international practice, as in Australia and New Zealand, the commission should play a key role in modernising our archaic registration and voting process and encouraging turnout at elections.

Some other speakers referred to the proposal of giving the vote to those aged 16 years. That will help them to engage in the process. We need to ensure the citizen is central to democracy and we need to encourage participative democracy. I would like to see more of it at local authority level.

The Minister has previously stated in response to a parliamentary question in the Dáil that the Government legislation programme for autumn 2014 provides for the publication of an Electoral Commission Bill in 2015. We have not long to wait. I welcome that the Department remains committed to following through on a programme for Government objective and I thank the Minister for that.