Dr. Theresa Reidy:

I would just add that digital registration has many advantages. One is that it would reduce the costs of running the registration process. It would eliminate all the form inputting that must be done afterwards, and it would eliminate a lot of error because incomplete forms are not submitted. It is very advantageous for accessing younger cohorts who are much more familiar with this technology. It would require verification and validation processes so there is confidence in the system. That is where the conversation with the Data Protection Commissioner would come in.

We are all moving in this direction and a number of countries are at a much more advanced stage on digital registration. We could learn a lot from them. Many states in the USA have been doing this since around 2007 and 2008. Several EU states are at an advanced stage. France is one where there is still some self-registration and we could learn a lot from it. We need to keep in mind that there will be people who will not use digital registration. That goes back to the original question of whether it is a good idea to have-----