Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have not got to amendment No. 3 yet.

I have a lot of sympathy for the point Deputies O'Callaghan and Bacik raised. There are other issues. If one goes to Google Maps one will see a pin with pretty much every TD or Senator on the Internet. I have seen it. People know where we live and I get that, but some elements of society exploit this. We have seen more protests at the houses of TDs, Senators and indeed councillors. Families are not involved in politics. They do not run for elected office. We are all well able to take criticism, constructive or otherwise. I have sympathy for the point the Deputies raised. It would be useful to raise it with the commission as well. I am happy to assess it further. Mr. Ryan was just saying to me that people may use constituency office addresses, which I knew, but not everyone has a constituency office. Do we look at using local authority offices? There seems to be a very Dublin Fingal-weighted interest in the proceedings this afternoon, but we could take Deputy Mitchell in Dublin as example. Should the closest local authority office to a Member be appropriate for an address? I get the issue, I really do. It has become much more in focus and we have all seen quite serious issues that TDs and prospective TDs have had to endure. We are used to it, in the main, although that does not make it right. However, families and others are not standing for elected office and these are their homes too, so I get it. I do not have the answer for that yet, Chair.

Is Deputy Bacik going to bring something back on Report Stage? It might be something for the commission to do a piece of research on, with a focus on alternatives. Professions still require it and I remember all those types of things. As Deputy O'Callaghan said, it harks back to a time in the past as well. I will leave my comments on it at that for the moment.