Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will move on to my own five-minute slot. We had a number of meetings about the Bill, which attracted quite a lot of attention. A wide range of issues are covered in it and that is why it attracted so much attention. A lot of that attention went on registers and political advertising. I was particularly interested to hear some of the concerns and suggestions that came out of the session with the Irish Traveller Movement, ITM, the National Youth Council of Ireland and the National Women's Council of Ireland.

I will, for the Minister of State's information, tell him what I picked up from the Bill. When people move around the place and go off the electoral register, they often do not go back on it again. The ITM raised a question about how that could be addressed because, by their very lifestyle, there is movement. It is also true of students. Let us consider the case of a student who lives in Tipperary and goes to college in University College Dublin or University College Cork, or wherever it may be. Those kinds of students do not go onto the register in the area of their student accommodation and we see gaps as a result of that. I am canvassing in Dublin Bay South at the moment and there are large gaps in the register when it comes to apartment blocks. People who are living there say they never went on the register because they are not from the area and vote back at home. We need to be able to address the gaps in the register and how we can make it easier for people to move about but remain on it.

I also raise the use of the register, the data contained in it, the access to a marked register, the electoral register, the updated register, and the information that is contained therein. We need to give people confidence that their data is protected and only used for those purposes. We have heard talk of merging different registers, including marked registers, and that data being used to further the objectives of political parties. There was recently a discussion about fake polling. We need to restore people's confidence that the data they give for democracy and elections is protected and only used for that purpose. I hope that point is taken on board by everybody. Deputy Higgins raised the matter. We have reached out to the political parties because they have a role to play in protecting data and access to the electoral register. Some of those political parties did not respond to us by email. We took the step of writing to them. The Bill addresses inclusivity and the notion of bringing everybody in. I find it disappointing, as Chairman of this committee, that we did not get a response. It creates further questions about political parties that are a part of this process. They have the opportunity and access to influence elections. It is disappointing that they would not respond to a request from a committee for them to come in and give submissions on electoral reform. Those parties are in receipt of State funding, which also needs to be looked at, although it is another day's work.

When I saw the section of the Bill concerning online advertising, I knew we were opening the lid on something that was going to go in many different directions, as it did. I am conscious that this Bill covers only the period of the electoral cycle. As Deputy McAuliffe said, we need to have a closer look at that. The more money a party has and the bigger it is, the more advertising it can buy and the more influence it can exert. That has always been the way of it but we must try to strike a balance here to make it fair and have real accountability and transparency in online advertising.

As an indication of how far-reaching this Bill is, I received a submission from, and met with, two sixth-year students who put together a good research project on extending the vote to people who have been overseas for less than five years. That gave me an indication of how engaged with politics and the electoral process young people are. They made some good points. I told them the Bill will not cover their points but asked them to send the committee a submission anyway. We will include their submission with our pre-legislative scrutiny report. I think the Minister of State met those students. When I see how engaged they are with politics and the electoral process, it gives me confidence that the future is relatively safe in the hands of our young people who are coming through.