Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I wish to express my appreciation to the Minister for holding the fort yesterday when I was unavoidably absent and, thus, unable to move amendment No. 30a. I wish to speak to that amendment now, however, along with the others being taken with it. For some time, the Labour Party has sought an extension to the deadline for people submitting amendments to the draft register. Given the problems that arose in compiling the new register, we argued that the 25 November deadline provided insufficient time for people to respond. This was particularly so as some local authorities had not managed to notify those whose names had been deleted from the register and, therefore, such people would not have enough time to respond. I proposed an amendment along these lines on Committee Stage three or four weeks ago. It is a pity it was not accepted at the time and that the date was not extended then. I welcome the fact that it is now proposed to extend the date to 9 December.

There is a case for extending it beyond 9 December. At a practical level, that could be done because work will continue on this process up to Christmas and beyond. In that context, there is probably some latitude that could allow for the date to be extended. It would be necessary to extend the deadline arising from the Minister's effective acceptance of the amendment I propose on behalf of the Labour Party in respect of data protection issues.

As the Minister is aware, the data protection issues arose from requests made by Members of the House to local authorities to supply the list of deletions from the draft register. Given the time constraints involved, this was a means of quickly cross checking the list of deletions with local information available to Members of the House and others active in the political process. Some local authorities refused to supply that list of deletions. In the case of my local authority, I was told that the computer would crash if it had to print the list of deletions. In the case of South Dublin County Council, the response given to my party leader was that there was an issue in respect of the Data Protection Acts. For purposes of clarification, the response given by the local authority through the Data Protection Commissioner in that case in a letter to Deputy Rabbitte, dated 23 November, stated:

In our advisory role we were approached on the issue of the provision of lists of persons who were on the old electoral register and not on the new draft register. Following various contacts, we provided the following advice in an email to South Dublin County Council:

There is no data protection difficulty with an elected representative pursuing queries in relation to the status of individual persons on the electoral register if doing it on their behalf and, thereby, the consent of the person in question will legitimise the making available of the information. Equally, there is no problem with an elected representative pursuing queries in relation to blocks of houses in a particular area that are no longer on the register, as this is aggregate data and there is no personal data involved. We also see no difficulty with supplying an electronic copy of the draft register, as is, and the previous current register to the elected representative for electoral purposes. As you have explained, you had already done this as this is standard practice. This would be as opposed to actually processing the two registers themselves and producing an extract of names that are no longer on the draft register, as this could give rise to data protection implications.

In the course of the letter the Data Protection Commissioner also stated, "Our concern relates to those individuals who deliberately choose not to be included on the register. We believe, and nobody has argued against this, that their choice must be respected". The commissioner went on to explain that the purpose of the decision was to protect the rights of those people who chose not to be on the electoral register, and that this is where the issue of data protection arises. He went on to state that this was an issue the Oireachtas might wish to address. The Oireachtas is now addressing it. We are making a change in the law, as proposed by the Labour Party and accepted by the Minister, whereby the data protection legislation will be changed to allow for the issue of lists of deletions from the old register to those who seek them, and it will not contravene the Data Protection Act.

Earlier, I drew attention to another practical issue which arises from that situation. We will complete Report Stage of this Bill within the next hour. Following the enactment of the new electoral Act there will be no legal impediment on local authorities from issuing the list of deletions.

I anticipate that practical difficulties will continue and I will be interested to see the direction given by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, to local authorities on this matter. Even if the word goes out to local authorities this evening that they can issue the list of deletions, the deadline of 9 December will be upon us by the time we receive it and deal with it. Given our actions on the issue of the list of deletions I ask the Minister to reconsider the deadline as I think it could be extended to Christmas, for practical purposes, without causing major upheavals in how the register is compiled and without interfering with the deadline of 15 February.

The work on the compilation of the register will continue until the new register is produced and I do not think an extension of the deadline of 9 December to the beginning of Christmas week will cause the practical difficulties the Minister might previously have envisaged. An extension would allow everyone to make use of the list of deletions in the most effective way possible.

The second issue to arise from the amendment is the question of people opting not to be on the electoral register. There is an assumption, made by the Data Protection Commissioner, the Minister and the Department, that there is a right to opt out of the electoral register and I question this. Historically, voting rights were related to property rights and the local authority had a list of rate payers who were, in turn, the voters. That is how local authorities came to compile the electoral register in the first place. There was no basis in law for people to opt not to pay rates at that time and I can find no legislative basis for people to opt out of the electoral register. My interpretation of the Electoral Acts is that there is a positive responsibility on the registration authorities to register people. The law does not support the Taoiseach's assertion that it is up to individuals to ensure they are on the register. The registration authorities have an obligation to register people. I will be interested to hear the Minister's response on this matter.

On the issue of data protection, some local authorities, when compiling the draft register, removed people who did not respond to the letters and the callers to their doors. Other local authorities, including that in my area, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, chose not to take that route unless there was actual evidence that a person was no longer at a particular address. Can a local authority remove a person from the register without firm evidence that the person wishes to be removed?

I am concerned that some local authorities compiled the draft register on the basis of responses they received. People will check the draft register and be satisfied that they are on it without having replied to the earlier correspondence issued by the local authority. Now the local authority may, on the basis of the earlier correspondence, remove such people from the register. This would create a triple jeopardy for people in such a situation. I want the Minister to give a clear direction to local authorities that unless concrete evidence exists that a person on the draft register is no longer where he or she was, his or her name should not be removed. This concrete evidence would include a request from a person wishing to have his or her name removed or evidence that a person has moved to a new address.

People have contacted me recently expressing their concerns that they may not have returned the relevant form to the council and that their names did not appear on the register website. When I check the hard copy of the draft register they are often on it and, in such circumstances, I assure them that they have nothing to worry about. People have been encouraged to check the draft register, they are reassured on seeing their names on it and these names should, therefore, not be removed. A direction should be given to local authorities not to create an entirely new problem by removing people from the draft register who have already checked they are on it.

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