Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The purpose of this amendment is to enable regulations to be made dealing with the provision of information under the Bill by electronic means. For example, in the matter of licensing applications or appeals, data on monitoring or strategic water services plans, it will enable procedures under the Act to be kept abreast of ongoing developments in technology. The detailed provisions are based on similar provisions in section 248 of the Planning and Development Act 2000.

The reference in subsection (4) to section 19(1)(f) is intended to prevent doubt by ensuring the section, which enables a notice to be served by fax or e-mail, provided a hard copy is also served, continues to apply notwithstanding the provisions of this section. Regulations may specify the circumstances in which information may be provided electronically and related technical and procedural requirements including those dealing with the retention of records. Subsection (6) provides that these additional provisions are subject to any requirement in other more generic legislation dealing with data provision, such as the data protection Acts. Before Senator Bannon takes the opportunity of reminding me of the importance of VVPAT, a hard copy will be provided.