Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach seo inniu. I thank the Minister of State for taking time out of his schedule to be here.

Monaghan and Cavan county councils, that of the Minister of State and many other local authorities around the country are undergoing a process referred to as the register of electors’ data cleansing project. In layperson's language, that means trying to tidy up the register. It is a huge volume of work. As I am sure Senator Tully has done, I have spoken to colleagues in local authorities in Cavan and Monaghan about this issue. Thousands of letters have gone out to people to try to get them to update their information. It is important to say that at this point nobody has been taken off the register, but those who have not responded after receiving three letters from the local authorities will be taken off. I advise anybody to return the correspondence or call in to speak to the people involved.

Voter.ie will be the new vehicle for the provision for online registration across the country, a rolling register and a new national local government electoral register. We all appreciate that accuracy indicators are key for an online accurate electoral register in which there are no faults, no duplicates, no incorrect entries, and where all the data held for an entry are correct and each person is registered only once. Based on reported data, it is estimated that 11 local authorities have more people on their local electoral register than the entire population of those counties, which is a staggering statistic. A complete register is one on which those who are eligible electors are registered on each of the electoral registers. The accuracy of the electoral registers, as well as how they are managed and maintained, is fundamental to our democratic process.

Accuracy needs resources in the long term to ensure the management of our electoral register is improved and maintained. I ask the Minister of State whether he is happy there are sufficient staff to undertake this huge volume of work. Communication with the public is vital in the pursuit of accuracy and to ensure people understand what is happening and why. I would be grateful if the Minister of State could make a statement on where we are at with this entire process and what other measures, from the point of view of publicity, we can take to ensure when the process is complete that we have a document which is accurate and in which people can have confidence that those on the register are entitled to be on it and are only on the register once.

I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this important issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne. The Electoral Reform Act 2022 provided for significant changes to streamline and modernise the electoral registration process, including the introduction of continuous and online registration, as well as the use of PPSNs in the registration process, making it easier for people to check and update their information. In the intervening period, over 1 million applications for updates to the register have been made by the public through the online portals.

The Act also put in place the legal basis for a new national electoral registration system, which will be delivered by Dublin City Council this year, supported by the Department. The new, integrated national system will, among other things, enable local authorities to identify and manage duplicate and deceased electors at national level. Overall, the system will streamline the administration of the register of electors within a modern, secure architecture and will provide an enhanced service to the public, including through enabling the use of MyGovID.

Building on the €6.5 million made available directly to local authorities since 2023 to improve the data quality of their electoral registers, in 2025 the Minister, Deputy Browne, made nearly €5 million available to fund two clerical officers at grade Ill for a period of 18 months in each local authority to undertake specific tasks to prepare for migration to the new system, including standardisation and translation, as well as identifying and following up on deceased and potentially duplicated electors across the country.

An Coimisiún Toghcháin, in its first annual report on electoral registers in May 2025, identified with concern the legacy issues around register data but acknowledged the enormous amount of work being carried out by local authorities to address these while making recommendations to accelerate this work. The Government's commitment to this and the work of local authorities are yielding results. In December 2025 the local government sector reported that over one in four entries on the register had been updated and has an associated PPSN, which means these entries have been checked and confirmed. A total of 74% of entries had a date of birth, 73% had an eircode and 60% of registered electors have both. We expect these trends to continue.

Local authorities, which have responsibility for electoral registration, have done a huge amount of work to get us to this point and I acknowledge this. In addition, the engagement of the public is critical. Each of us is responsible for ensuring that our details on the register are current and correct. Senator Gallagher made reference to encouraging the public when they are written to by the local authority to revert to it as quickly as possible. Clearly, we want to people on the register and we want the register to be accurate. Engagement with the public and people coming back to the local authorities is very important. This is the latest update from the Minister.

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive response. I pay tribute to the staff of the local authorities for the huge volume of work they are doing on this. As I have said, thousands of letters have gone out. Monaghan County Council has sent out 2,000 letters to people three times looking for them to engage. I encourage these people to engage because if they do not do so by 31 May, they could be removed from the register. There is a reluctance among people in some parts to pass on their PPS number as they are afraid it may be used for an alternative purpose. I understand this is not the case. Even if they do not wish to give their PPS number, it is only being asked for purely from the point of view of making sure the names on the register are accurate and legal. People can drop into the local authority with their passport to rubber-stamp and confirm their identity. If people are reluctant to give their PPSN the door is not closed as there are other ways. If they drop in with their ID to the local authority they will be able to get around this issue. I encourage everybody who has not responded to please do so. This is very important work for which we have been calling for years and years. I hope that at the end of this process we will end up with a register that is as accurate as it can possibly be.

I thank Senator Gallagher for bringing this issue up for discussion, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Browne. This is a very important issue and one on which we have made significant progress. I have set out the critical work done by local authorities in recent years, including on legacy data quality issues. I join Senator Gallagher in acknowledging and paying tribute to the work of local authority staff in this regard. As Senator Gallagher has done, I encourage people to respond to the local authorities and engage with them on ensuring we have an up-to-date and accurate register of electors in each local authority area.

We have put in place structures and processes to ensure the integrity of this critical piece of our democratic infrastructure is maintained and enhanced. Annual reporting by local authorities to An Coimisiún Toghcháin, and the commission's own annual report in which it can make recommendations and set standards, will ensure the work done to date will continue to be built upon. As I have said, it is also a matter for each of us to ensure our details are correct and up to date. This is something we can do and encourage others to do. I join Senator Gallagher in encouraging people to engage with the local authorities on this process and I ask them to revert to the local authority on any correspondence they receive on the register of electors. I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this important issue.