Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 23 March 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

General Scheme of Electoral Reform Bill 2020: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Rebecca MoynihanRebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have only just returned. I missed a portion of the meeting, so I apologise if I ask a question that someone has already gone through. I will be quick.

Ms Carolan's presentation was interesting and this is a fascinating area. Something that she and academics like Professor Jane Suiter have said is that the body needs to be a campaigning and dynamic electoral commission. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan covered this matter somewhat, but if Ms Carolan had to choose one term of reference, particularly as regards digital advertising outside elections that the electoral commission would have to cover, what would it be?

Will Ms Carolan elaborate on her allusion to disinformation campaigns in, for example, health matters? They have an effect on the body politic, as well as on elections. Does Ms Carolan believe that this matter should be included in the electoral commission's remit outside of elections or am I picking her up wrong?

I will ask a brief question about the Data Protection Commission, DPC. I had a meeting with Facebook.

It spoke about the names and postal addresses of people being publicly available and stated it would be much better for the regulator to be able to hold that information. I do not currently have a view on this issue, but do the representatives of the Data Protection Commission think that head 121 conflicts with the GDPR?

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