Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 1368: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the amount of funding from the local authorities own funds that will be spent by each local authority on work on the voters register for 2008; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1999/08]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 1369: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the allocation of funding that has been made from his Department on a local authority basis in 2008 for work on the voters register in view of the fact that the draft to be produced at the end of 2008 will form the basis for the register for 2009 which will be used for the local and European elections; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2000/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1368 and 1369 together.

In law the preparation of the Electoral Register is a matter for each local registration authority. It is their duty to ensure, as far as possible and with the cooperation of the public, the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the Register.

Expenditure by local authorities on the services for which they are responsible is funded from a range of sources, including grants provided by my Department, goods and services income and rates on commercial and industrial property. The grants provided by my Department include general purpose grants, which in 2008 amount to €999 million — an increase of €51 million or 5.4% over the amount provided for 2007. The cost of work on the compilation and publication of the Electoral Register is generally met from these sources of funding available to local authorities. The amount of funding allocated by each authority to carry out this work in any particular year is a matter for the authority concerned.

My Department funds an annual advertising campaign, at a cost of some €160,000, which encourages people to check that their details are correctly recorded on the Electoral Register.