Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. I thank the Chair. It was not a problem.

It has been an interesting meeting. I thank Mr. Sunderland and Mr. Murphy, and Ms Carolan, for their contributions. They are really helping us.

I agree this is a hugely important draft piece of legislation. I suppose democracy is up there for us with the rule of law and human rights and we must get this right. Their contributions have helped us progress the discussion but they have probably raised more questions for us which we, as a committee, will have to take on in the next stages of our work. I direct that comment, I suppose, to us as a committee.

Specifically, in terms of the Data Protection Commissioner, the deputy commissioner, Mr. Sunderland, referenced on a number of occasions the data protection impact assessments. I completely agree with him, in terms of a methodology and a practice to assert and to establish, but can he go back to the question I heard one of the other committee members ask earlier? It seems counter-intuitive that these data impact assessments would be done after we have enacted legislation, particularly as it relates to the register of electors. The integrity and the accuracy of the register of electors is fundamental to any chance of our democracy being an effective democracy.

Can the witnesses talk about that? I have an intuitive concern, which is not based on any great expertise, around the proposal to have a central database and, for a period of time, a parallel local authority-administered register of electors. At base, before we embark upon creating any sort of new centralised database there should be some sort of audit of the integrity of the existing database and register and a data protection impact assessment undertaken on what is being proposed.

I congratulate Ms Carolan on her baby. It is a terrible time of the evening for us to ask any mother with a young baby to engage in these types of meetings. I appreciate her attendance. Her contributions have been really valuable.

I refer to the electoral commission. When I think about the architecture of the register it is something we have to get right at the start. For the commission to succeed it has to be something that is future proofed, scalable and adaptable. It cannot be static and must be something that evolves. What type of resources should we be looking to secure in the initial stages in order to do that?

I heard what she said about there not being an exemplar. I appreciate the reference to the European democracy action plan. We need to try to protect the democratic value of our electoral process, as opposed to defining the nuts and bolts of how we are going to do that. I would appreciate any guidance or suggestion she can give us on how to progress that objective.