Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 76:

In page 58, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “Amendment of Data Protection Act 2018

41.The Data Protection Act 2018 is amended—

(a) in section 2, by the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘Mayor of Limerick’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 9 of the Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Act 2023;”,

and

(b) in section 39, by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (c) of subsection (3):

“(c) a candidate for election to the office of President of Ireland, or Mayor of Limerick, or for membership of either House of the Oireachtas, the European Parliament or a local authority.”.”.

Section 39 of the Data Protection Act 2018 allows for communications by specified persons to data subjects in respect of the specified person's electoral activities in the State. The amendment I propose provides for the inclusion of candidates for election to the office of the mayor of Limerick as specified persons in respect of the 2018 Act. In effect, this will allow candidates in mayoral election to use data from the electoral register to communicate with those on the register, as is the case with candidates for all other types of elections in this country.