Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To insert the following after "for such constituencies":

"and to make amendments to statutory provisions requiring the publication of the addresses of candidates at elections".

I put forward an amendment to the motion to instruct the committee to say that there should amendments made to statutory provisions requiring the publication of the addresses of candidates at elections. The purpose of the amendment is to allow for the Long Title of the Bill to be changed so that the Bill itself can be amended so as to protect the home addresses of political candidates.

It is a critical issue. We see difficulties, particularly in the wake of real concerns around threats on social media and threats from the far right, with candidates being fearful about running for political office, partly because of the convention that home addresses are published. We wanted to tackle this. I had a principal amendment on the Bill down. It was ruled out of order. I raised this on Committee Stage of the Bill last week. I am simply asking that we might amend the motion to reflect this issue. If the Government will not accept this amendment, and I am asking the Minister of State to accept it, then I will push this to a vote which I think will be taken later in the deferred block.

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