Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators Ruane and Higgins for bringing the Bill to us for debate, as well as Seb, in Senator Ruane's office, who was very responsive to my queries. I must admit that when I first saw the Title of the Bill, and the document I received that referred to keeping in power the voices of the people and of civil society groups, I kind of struggled with what exactly it was about. Once I understood it, I agreed wholeheartedly that the issue needs to be addressed. That is blindingly obvious.

Both the Senators spoke about the volunteer effort and how much we rely on it in Ireland, which we do. I am a voluntary director of a youth service, a Garda youth diversion programme, a family resource centre and a community policing forum. I got involved in all those groups on a voluntary basis for the same reasons as the people and groups the Senators described. I have contested local elections, Dáil elections, Seanad elections and European Parliament elections. There is not much of the ugly side of electoral politics I have not seen. This is one part of that which is quite distorting, so it needs to be reviewed. I very much welcome the commitment of the Minister of State and the Government to delivering on the promise in the programme for Government for an electoral commission.

I share the Senators' concern about the issue getting bogged down. I am a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Housing, to my mind, is probably the single biggest issue facing us, putting climate change, Covid-19 and Brexit aside.It is important that we all work to ensure that it does not get bogged down, that there is a timeline assigned to it, and that this issue is called out as one to be addressed.

In Dublin Central, elections and the other issues that I would like to see addressed are those that have been mentioned around postering, funding from outside of the State for political activities, and the congestion caused by northern-registered cars around polling stations in Dublin Central. I am not sure it will be addressed by the electoral commission, but I can wish.