Katherine Zappone (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I respect her views on the matter.I am happy that the Minister of State is willing to communicate my concerns to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

It appears, from what the Minister of State has said, that the Department will do the usual thing - namely, advertise in the national newspapers - with the local authorities being ultimately responsible. I am raising this issue now in order to encourage the Government to be a little bit more imaginative in this regard. The Minister of State understands the importance of getting people to register to vote and, while the forthcoming referendum here may not be as important as the recent referendum in Scotland, I referred to the Scottish example because the Scots used some imaginative methods to encourage people to register.

Finally, we should look to organisations such as the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, in the context of encouraging young people to vote. That organisation managed to register 20,000 young people in the past. It is aiming to register a further 10,000 students and is engaged in a number of innovative activities to that end. The USI and other civil society organisations would be very grateful if the Government would provide a small grant or fund to support their work in this regard, although they are doing the work anyhow. They have found that www.checktheregister.ieneeds to be updated and monitored, because there are inconsistencies in the information contained therein. They also note that city and county councils are giving different types-----