The Government's lackadaisical attitude to the integrity of the electoral register and abuse of the democratic system has been nothing short of shameful. Initially, Ministers attempted to ignore the gross inaccuracies of the voting register and accused the Opposition parties of exaggeration.
When that didn't work, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern spoke of revising the register through the employment of door-to-door enumerators. But we are still awaiting details of any such scheme. And there is no guarantee that an accurate register will be in place when a general election is called.
This administrative failure is on a par with the shambles that surrounds our driver testing system. But it is far more serious as it could influence the composition of a future government. Yet the Coalition parties procrastinate and do nothing, while using the occasion to accuse Sinn Féin of engaging in widespread personation. This is blatant hypocrisy. If the potential for abuse exists within the voting system - and it unequivocally does - the Government's responsibility is to protect democracy and correct the electoral register.
Instead of that, the public was treated to a homily by the Taoiseach involving certain houses in his Dublin constituency where up to 80 persons were registered to vote in the last general election and where there had been "an extraordinary turn-out". So even though the Taoiseach was aware of widespread abuse of the voting system four years ago, nothing has been done to rectify the situation. Depending on which estimate you accept, it may now contain the names of between 300,000 and 800,000 people who are either dead, should not be there or have moved to new addresses. The situation is an open invitation to political abuse. And the Government has sat back and done nothing.
There is a reluctance at both official and political level to step outside traditional mechanisms in order to address the situation. A proposal by the Labour Party to use non-confidential information from the recent census forms to establish a new electoral register was resisted by the Central Statistics Office and rejected by the Government. And Minister for the Environment Dick Roche ruled out a suggestion that personal identification be required of voters at polling stations in order to prevent abuses.
Now, you cannot conduct a bank transaction or travel abroad without identification. Local authorities will not even issue a parking permit in the absence of a personal utility bill. So what is the problem about producing such material when it comes to protecting democracy and electing a government?
Coalition ministers have, at times, been shown to be lazy, complacent and incompetent during their nine years in office. But new heights of ineptitude have been scaled on this occasion. Their failure now threatens the very fabric of our political system and they must put it right.