Indelible ink or fingerprint scanners could be used in polling booths at the next General election to stop voter fraud, Environment Minister Dick Roche said today.
Mr Roche told the Oireachtas Environment Committee that he appreciated that many public representatives had concerns about the electoral register but the issue was too serious to be used for scoring political points.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern admitted to the Dail earlier this month that the electoral system could be open to voter fraud if the register was not properly updated before the next General Election, due in less than 12 months.
Suggesting ways of halting voting cheats, Mr Roche today recalled to the Oireachtas Committee that when he supervised elections in Nicaragua, voters had their fingers dipped in indelible ink which couldn't be washed off for several days.
"It would be a badge of pride that you participated in democracy. It's very lo-tech. The stain would be there and you couldn't vote again," he explained.
Mr Roche also proposed that fingerprint scanning technology used at airports could be adapted to identify voters in polling booths.
"If you have voted once, your fingerprints would be recorded and you wouldn't be able to vote elsewhere a second time."
He added: "Between the lo-tech and the hi-tech, there are ways of addressing the issue of election fraud".
Committee member, Fianna Fail TD, Billy Kelleher said he was defeated in the 1992 General Election by only 14 votes and that small margins were the difference between success and failure.
He called for mandatory registering of students in colleges and universities.
The Taoiseach told the Dail earlier this month that there were houses in his own Dublin Central constituency where up to 80 people were registered.
A survey of the Dublin South-East constituency, which was later discredited by Dublin City Council, claimed that 17,000 people eligible to vote in the constituency were not registered and a further 15,000 people who had died or moved from the area were still on the register.
PA