Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of points to make to the Department of Social Protection. Perhaps the Data Protection Commissioner might comment too.

To what extent does the Department of Social Protection share PPSN information? I presume it liaises with Revenue on PPS numbers, but to what extent does it happen? With how many other public bodies does the Department interact on the issue of PPSN information? We have many organs of State which collate a lot of similar information. Some already have it, while others go to extreme lengths to get information that is already in the possession of another public sector organ. It is like a dog chasing its own tail. Is there interaction between the Department of Social Protection and local authorities and if not, why not? It is the one Department that knows everyone's date of birth and date of death when survivors apply for bereavement grants. Why does it not happen when local authorities compile the electoral register?

Can Mr. Donnelly and Mr. Kavanagh answer one question for me? I am intrigued about opinion polls. The standard of political writing in the newspapers nowadays is absolutely appalling and a lot of the stuff online is just clickbait and deals with aspects of politics that I do not find in the least bit interesting. One of the features newspapers use to sell copy is opinion polls, which are now front page news. Most of those present will be exercised by the Sunday Business PostRed C poll which is the only tracking poll of its kind. There are other polls which can vary greatly, with one newspaper publishing a poll which reflects a difference of five or six points from another. They cannot both possibly be correct.

There have been two recent significant events. One was the polls before the UK general election. I was surprised to learn there was a polling commission in the United Kingdom which had launched an inquiry into why the polling companies had got it wrong. Either the polling companies or the people got it wrong and I would conclude that the polling companies got it wrong. Can they be held to account in any way on these matters? There is no way of knowing how scientific or accurate the data they use are and it is all done to drive the sales of newspapers.

I campaigned against the abolition of the Seanad as I thought it was appalling that any Government would want to move from a bicameral to a unicameral system. The word on the street and the feedback from canvassers was that the people would reject the proposal, but TheIrish Timescarried a poll that week that suggested the Seanad would go and that it was a foregone conclusion. It got it horribly wrong, but there were no consequences and no one was held to account. If a Minister had made a statement in the course of a plebiscite that was deemed to be grossly inaccurate, one would have heard about it until the cows came home. Should there be a role for polling in the electoral commission? If and when the commission is up and running, should it have a remit to monitor this behaviour? Polls can sometimes influence voters in an unhealthy way. The Administration of 1997 to 2002 tried to bring forward legislation in 2001 to ban opinion polls, but after it had passed through the Dáil and while it was in the final stages in the Seanad, a Senator spotted an anomaly and it was abandoned. Does an electoral commission need to have a remit which covers polling? There is wide inconsistency in the way information from polls is fed to us and questions need to be asked as to why it is fed to us.

Perhaps Mr. Duggan might answer the questions on the Department of Social Protection. If Ms Dixon wants to respond, she may do so. I will then go to Mr. Donnelly and Mr. Kavanagh.