There is still "significant over-registration" on the electoral register based on an academic hypothesis, Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has conceded. There are just 32,000 fewer names on the register and 62,000 fewer eligible to vote in Dáil elections, although local authorities continue to make corrections.
Mr Roche said the hypothesis was that "the total number of people on the electoral register should be roughly the equivalent of 85 per cent of the 18-plus population". He is also considering a new publicity campaign to encourage people to check if they are on the register. He also noted a Fine Gael proposal to target the publicity at people who have turned 18 since November last year, when the draft register was published.
The department's figures showed "some 555,000 names were removed from last year's register and 523,000 names added", Mr Roche said. He was however "satisfied that there has been a very significant improvement in the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the register".
Labour spokesman Eamon Gilmore said there were major inconsistencies in the new register and while most constituencies have 18,000 to 20,000 voters per TD, in a number of Dublin constituencies, the ratio is about 1 to 14,000 or 1 to 15,000.
Fergus O'Dowd, Fine Gael's spokesman, said that in a survey of 120 homes in his constituency they found more than 40 young people who had turned 18 since November but were not registered. He called on Mr Roche to target any further publicity campaign at young people, whom he said felt intimidated going to Garda stations to fill out supplementary register forms. He suggested a garda could attend local authority offices to make the issue less formal.
Mr Roche pointed out that in Cork city, there is a registration rate of 87 per cent of those over 18, compared to 82 per cent in Dublin, 74 per cent in Galway, 84 per cent in Limerick and 75 per cent in Waterford. A huge number of names were removed from the register in Waterford and "that was not necessarily a bad thing because it turned out that there was a disproportionate number of deceased persons on the register".
Mr Roche agreed with Sinn Féin spokesman Arthur Morgan that a rolling register was the best option, but it required primary legislation and he believed the registration process should be taken out of party politics.
