Mr. John Carroll:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to address the committee today. I must note first that my understanding was that I was invited as general secretary to attend the committee hearing today. While I was aware that I could delegate this to another individual within the national organisation, I was not aware I could delegate it out of the ambit of headquarters.

The general scheme proposes that the information in the register of electors maintained will only be used for electoral or other statutory purpose. This is broadly the same legislative position as currently applies. Under the current legislation, it is stated that a person who uses information in the register for a purpose other than an electoral or other statutory purpose will be guilty of an offence. Given this, it would appear the proposed legislation will not change the situation as for what the electoral register can be used.

Relating to Fine Gael's use of the electoral register, we hold copies of a number of electoral registers from recent years. These are kept for reference, research and planning purposes. For example, we use the information to be able to understand how many voters are in an area. We also use this information to assess changes in voter registrations from year to year and, in particular, to inform submissions to various constituency boundary commission reviews when they occur.

We also hold electoral registers on behalf of public representatives or candidates to facilitate their electoral activities. For example, they may not have the technology to maintain a copy of the register on their own systems. We do not merge, transfer or export the data from these registers to any central database, nor do we associate any other data against those held from the electoral register. We do not have a national database of voters.

We also hold copies of the marked electoral registers. This is for reference and planning purposes, primarily relating to turnout in particular areas. The data from the marked electoral registers are not associated with any other data.