Electoral Reform committee  STV works very well in Ireland for constituency services like that, and the TDs there seem to manage to act co-operatively to resolve those questions and important issues that the voters have.

Electoral Reform committee  It's the government. It's their promise to change the electoral system. I think that there are an awful lot of people in the country who wanted it changed, and that's the promise the government made—

Electoral Reform committee  There was a referendum; it was the election, I expect.

Electoral Reform committee  Personally, I think it's important for people to realize that there's going to be an election coming up in 2019. If the choice of an electoral change is made and the country does not want it, I expect the government will suffer from that. If they bring in change that voters do wa

Electoral Reform committee  I think it's an interesting position to take, that a government with 39% support in the country cannot make changes to the electoral system so that future governments will require 50% support to make decisions. That's kind of odd.

Electoral Reform committee  The most obvious benefit is voter satisfaction. If you have a government that is supported by 40% of the voters, then 40% of voters are going to be happy with the policies and laws which are coming from that government, perhaps.

Electoral Reform committee  If they're lucky. If there's a coalition government with more than 50% voter support, then that's an increase in voter satisfaction. More voters would be happy with the policies and laws that are coming out.

Electoral Reform committee  Well, what's not important to me to have a referendum on is human rights—

Electoral Reform committee  It's not important for me to have a referendum on what I consider to be a human right. I consider it a human right to be represented in government. I think voters have the right to representation. I think we all have a right to have a say in the laws and policies that affect us.

Electoral Reform committee  Well that's exactly what the citizens' assembly was. The citizens' assembly was the legislature unanimously asking voters what the best system was and in a way that they could respond in an informed, deliberative way.

Electoral Reform committee  There were 160 randomly chosen voters, a male and a female from every district and—

Electoral Reform committee  It was 160.

Electoral Reform committee  Absolutely.

Electoral Reform committee  I know that average voters are extremely intelligent and extremely dedicated and want to do the best for the country, because I worked with 150 other randomly selected voters, and they were all dedicated. They all had very intelligent comments and opportunities to speak their min

Electoral Reform committee  That's a much simpler question, with all due respect. Electoral systems are complicated. I know that separation is very complicated—