Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I might follow up on the question asked by Deputy Gould. It is one I put to the Department officials when they were before the committee. The heads of the Bill set out the principles for recruitment to the electoral commission. Do any of the witnesses have a view on whether the electoral commission should have someone with expertise in online information or information technology? Would that be beneficial or is it too prescriptive? It seems the body will have scope to bring in researchers to assist in its work.

How do we overcome the static design of the legislation to enable the electoral commission to be sufficiently agile and able to manoeuvre to stay up to speed as technology changes? We may commit something to legislation because the stakes are high and there is so much potentially to gain from influencing elections. However, once a measure is in legislation, people will be determined to find ways around it. How do we enable the electoral commission to have the necessary agility?