Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I did not intend to give the impression to the Senator that nothing is going to happen. What happened in Scotland was that people registered to vote because they had an interest in the issue. I do not think much effort was required to get people to register because the issue was of such significance. That is the message that we need to convey. The issue is important and if we get people attached, hooked on and interested enough in the issue, they will register to vote - take my word for it. People will vote because of a particular issue rather than out of a sense of civic responsibility. They will vote because there are not enough schools in their area or because the roads are bad. That is how we interact and do things. It is about getting people interested in the issue, and we must be more imaginative in that regard than we have been in the past. I can see the old television advertisement in my mind's eye, with the ballot paper going into the ballot box, the X on the ballot paper and so forth. We must be more imaginative than that, because the rest of the world is far more imaginative and creative now. We must be more imaginative, but it is not as though we do not have the talent to do so. We are experts in that regard and are more engaged with Facebook, Twitter and so forth than many people in other countries.

I also take the Senator's point about the USI, which is a great organisation.