Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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751. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views on the implementation of the Constitutional Convention's recommendations in relation to reform of the electoral system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14270/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Convention on the Constitution addressed reform of the Dáil electoral system in its Fourth Report. On 18 December 2014, in the Dáil, the Government provided its response to the recommendations in that report. The Government has accepted the two main recommendations of the Report - to retain the current PRSTV system for elections and to establish an Electoral Commission. I published a consultation paper on the Electoral Commission on 27 January 2015 and discussed the paper with the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht on 10 March 2015 as part of the pre-legislative process for an Electoral Commission Bill. The Committee is now engaging in a consultation process on the paper and will report their recommendations to me in due course.

The Convention also recommended in its report that measures should be introduced to improve voter turnout and improve the accuracy of the electoral register. The Government accepted these recommendations, indicating that it would seek to implement measures to achieve improvements in voter turnout and acknowledging that the highest possible levels of accuracy should be a constant and continuing objective for all with responsibility for the electoral register.

The Government did not accept the recommendation for larger Dáil constituencies, with the smallest constituency size being a 5 seater, nor the recommendation that Dáil membership be more than 159 TDs, based on a ratio of one TD to every 30,000 of the electorate.

The Government agreed that further consideration should be given in due course by the proposed Electoral Commission to the recommendations that there should be greater access to postal voting, that there should be a move away from the alphabetical order of candidates on the ballot paper and that polling hours and polling days be extended. Such consideration would include advising in detail on the electoral and operational implications, including costs, of implementing changes in these areas.

The Government also noted the Convention recommendation concerning the introduction of a relevant political education programme in schools and drew attention to the fact that much is being done in this regard already in the education sector.