Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Under Article 21 everybody has a right to object to having their data processed for the purposes of direct marketing. The Government inserted this new section in the Bill in the Seanad that says receiving direct mail from a political party or the Referendum Commission is not direct marketing, so a person has no right to object. Essentially, it limits a person's right to object to being spammed so long as the bodies sending unsolicited mail are political parties or candidates. Is the Government doing this to get around the freepost thing that everybody gets in an election, which is sent out by An Post? If it is, then deal with that. By doing it this way the legislation is just allowing any unsolicited mail from a political party or candidate to get through. I do not believe this would be desirable.