I see the Electoral Commission boss Art O’Leary, admitted that the electoral register could have as many as 500,000 names on it that should not be there.

The half a million extra potential votes are either duplicates or people who have deceased, he admitted on RTÉ radio this week.

It wouldn’t happen if the Department of Agriculture was in charge of the register, I can tell you. It’s incredible to think that our animal traceability is far superior to our human traceability. There isn’t a bullock moved in the parish without its departure and arrival being logged in real-time.

Perhaps the Department’s secretary general Brendan Gleeson could offer his crack team from the AIMS department to clean up the electoral register. And if things didn’t improve fast, he could send in some former Special Investigations Unit (SIU) staff as reinforcements. The job would be oxo by Friday.