Results 5,221-5,240 of 15,009 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am happy to answer all of the questions, but I may not get to do so in the one minute available to me. However, I am sure others will ask similar questions so I will answer them at some point. I want it to be clear that we do not take information from any source, be that a constituency case file or social media interactions, and cross-reference those with the electoral register. It is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am taking the first Sinn Féin slot.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am also a member of the committee. There is nothing in Standing Orders preventing me from asking questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: Let me be constructive then because what we do not want is an acrimonious committee. I do not accept the premise of the Chair's ruling, but if I was to use my time to continue answering the questions posed by Senator Fitzpatrick, would that be a fair compromise?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: Again, I do not want to be in any obstructive, but when the Chair ruled in previous committees that witnesses could not question witnesses those witnesses were not members of the committee. I have never come across a situation where a member of an Oireachtas committee has been denied the right to ask questions. I do not want a row, honestly, but, I regret, that is a significant decision by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will make a final comment and then defer to my colleague, Deputy Gould. I request that at a later stage the committee would write to the Ceann Comhairle for an opinion on the matter. Again, I am not seeking to delay the process of the committee, but it is unheard of for a Chair to deny a member of a committee the right to participate as a member. I would like the Ceann Comhairle's ruling...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I thank Deputy Higgins and I will do my very best to answer her questions factually. We do not scape any data from any source. We do what any other party does and at times cross-reference the electoral register from the marked register. That is an ordinary part of electoral canvassing and something parties have done for a long time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: We would cross-reference the marked register in certain circumstances with the Abú system during and immediately after an election campaign.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: In certain circumstances, yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: No, and this is an important point, because, like all members of this committee, we take those data protection issues very seriously. For example, in my own constituency, the only people who will have access to Abú during and shortly after an election are the candidates and those people nominated by the candidates. They would be very few in number, such as a director of elections or a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: In what sense?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: No. For example, the data is presented in exactly the same way as the electoral register in the sense that it would be by street name, as the printed register is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I do not believe it would be. What I would say to Deputy Higgins, if this gives her any reassurance, is that we are engaging extensively with the Data Protection Commissioner. Any information she asks for, we provide so that she can make a determination as to our compliance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: Absolutely, and very successfully so.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: It would have been, yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: No, in fact, we would have used very little online advertising. Also, to be very clear, Deputy Higgins, we would never use the electoral register or information gleaned from canvassing, or the Abú system, for any of our online advertising. It is obviously recorded in Facebook for the public to see.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: No. For example, the typical type of advertising is when we have organic content, we would boost it at a constituency level, geographically or by age, etc.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: We do not use any information from the electoral register or canvass returns in any of our online advertising activity. All of the online advertising activity is done in exactly the same way as Deputy Higgins, or any other party, would do in the course of an election or outside of an election.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: No, absolutely not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bil 2020: Discussion (Resumed) (20 May 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: That would be a very straightforward thing, namely, face-to-face interactions. They would ordinarily be at the door but sometimes you will do a canvass at a stall or some other location. They would be recording face-to-face interactions during an election canvass, during an election period.