Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was a major part of it. There were some concerns raised in that report. It is in the whole area of the postal ballot box. I am not just saying this for effect. It is a reality borne out by the experts in this area. We have to be sure about the security of the system as well.

I have a final few comments to make. New systems do not come without a price, as I said earlier on, especially at the development and introduction stage. We do not have costings here. In fairness, there was neither the time nor the capacity for anybody proposing this Bill to do all of that. However, we have to do it and must analyse the cost behind it. I am all for greater democracy, greater purpose for this House and greater enhancement of Senators' reputations. The people who are here and who I have dealt with over the years deserve it. We have to bear in mind that there will be costs involved in this. There will be time delays, although I wish there were not. If we are going to increase the potential franchise to 5.3 million voters as opposed to 162,000, there will be issues to tease out. I am not saying it is the job of the proposer of the Bill to have all of the costs. It is not. We are all here to raise the issues and to try to work that out.

I have outlined some of the issues in the Bill that have come to the attention of my team in the Department in preparation for this debate. I set have these out in the spirit of consensus. This is something we are going to work through. We are certainly not opposing this. I know there are a few hours set aside for debate today. We might need more time. I am here to engage and hear all of the Senators' thoughts. There are some practical issues that we have to tease through. Everyone will agree with the consensus here that we want to try to bring about this change. It is about how quickly we can achieve that. I appreciate the time I have had to contribute and I look forward to the debate.