Vol. 481 No. 4
15 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his views on the number of errors in the electoral register which may amount to several thousand in any given constituency; and if he will appoint full-time numerators in an effort to compile registers in a much more professional and accurate manner. [16318/97]
I am most anxious to ensure the register of electors is prepared to the highest standards of accuracy. I recognise that errors and omissions occur. Changes made by my predecessor in the Electoral Act, 1997, will hopefully reduce the extent of errors and omissions. The provision for the preparation and publication of a supplement to the register under the Electoral Act, 1992, and the widening of the eligibility grounds for making application for inclusion in the supplements introduced by the Electoral Act, 1997, bring more flexibility to persons wishing to be entered in the register. It means that a person may now apply to have his or her name added to the register during the lifetime of that register and vote at any poll for which he or she would be entitled to vote at on the same basis as if he or she were included in the register in the first instance. Under this arrangement, there is in place a mechanism for rectifying omissions from the register at any time during the currency of the register.
Earlier this year I instructed registration authorities to write to individual electors where necessary when it is proposed to delete their names from the draft register. This measure should assist in avoiding the unintentional deletion of names from the draft register. The existing arrangements whereby some city corporations employ enumerators to carry out house-to-house inquiries for the purposes of compiling the draft register of electors and other registration authorities utilise the services and local knowledge of their revenue collectors and other staff for this purpose are operating satisfactorily and I see no reason at present to change these arrangements.
The final remarks of the Minister are totally out of order. There are huge discrepancies on the register. Is the Minister aware, from the most recent election, of the alarming lack of professionalism in compiling the register? Because the election was so drawn out on that occasion one could do a tally of who was present. In my constituency the number of mistakes was not less than 2,000 and could have been as high as 4,000 or 5,000, with whole families missing from the register. The hit and miss system in operation at present is not good enough.
I feel sorry for anybody who might lose an election by a couple of hundred or a couple of dozen votes. If the register was compiled as it should be such people might not lose an election. I appreciate many improvements have been made such as allowing one's name to be added to the register up to two weeks before an election, but the compilation of the register is still grossly inefficient. There are excellent enumerators who do their job properly, but many are inefficient and serious mistakes are made, causing people to lose elections.
I do not wish to minimise the difficulties that arise in various constituencies with the register of electors. There is no doubt mistakes are made. I would like to see the register compiled as efficiently and effectively as possible. People had an opportunity to register up to two weeks before the last general election and, statistically, the margin of error throughout the country was about 1.2 per cent. From anecdotal experience, I would have imagined it would have been much higher. I take the Deputy's point and, speaking on a personal basis, I would like to see changes in the compilation of the electoral register. I do not know whether we need to continue the system where a new register is compiled every year. In an age of computerisation it should be possible to put an electoral register on computer and add to or delete from that. I will pursue that matter with the Computer Services Board.
Will the Minister accept there may be a need from time to time for a dry run mail-out of registration cards to establish the position on the ground? There are cases where people have been registered under the same address in two polling stations. On the day of an election they go in good faith to the wrong polling station and are unable to vote. The principle of a dry run would be useful and, although a possible inconvenience, could pay dividends for democracy.
I am prepared to consider anything which would ensure greater accuracy. The practice of issuing polling cards prior to an election is the best we are going to get because of the huge cost involved.
Was Question No. 20 taken with Question No. 15?
I request that Questions Nos. 29, 30, 48 and 56 be resubmitted until the next day the Minister is answering questions.
I request that Questions Nos. 35 and 59 also be resubmitted.
Deputies should forward such requests to the General Office immediately.
