Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to ask about media platforms under GDPR. Data went out from the Department recently about a new road to check out areas and tell people in that area that they are on a route. Under GDPR, the Department could not send a letter to each of the individual houses but instead had to send them out in a flier system. It meant that only 10% of the people got the fliers because of the restrictions under GDPR. I agree that we need an accurate register. In rural areas, where townlands swap over, people often get a different vote in each individual area. People often get voting cards addressed to two or three individual areas because there are different townlands. The only way of calculating this properly and getting people onto a national register is by using their PPSN because that ensures one person, one vote. Deceased people are still receiving voting cards. Other people are not being put on registers because census takers cannot access properties and are missing half of the data. The first thing a young person gets is his or her PPSN. It is an accurate account of who someone is and records whether they are living in the country or county. It is an accurate account and a way of making a register that is 100% foolproof accurate. It is also a way of showing that someone is in the country at the time of an election, unless there are alternative ways of doing it. To get a register that is 100% foolproof, using the PPSN is the only way forward.

On advertising and the platforms for advertising, we can all see what can happen with advertising when it is used in the right way and the wrong way. It can do damage to certain people, whether it is true or false. I would like to see this legislation being looked at so that there is accountability and anyone who carries out that type of advertising is swiftly dealt with in an appropriate manner. I am following on from the same point that has been raised already and I am 100% behind it.