Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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Question 315: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the new rules governing electronic communication between politicians and members of the public; the means by which it is acceptable to ask members of the public to subscribe to communication from their public representative; if email address that were used for communication purposes before the new rules were enacted are still allowed to be used; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29522/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The rules to which the Deputy refers are the European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2011, which I signed into law on 1 July 2011. These Regulations transpose the requirements of EU Directive 2002/58/EC concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (ePrivacy Directive) as amended by the EU Directive 2009/136/EC (Citizens' Rights Directive).

Regulation 13 of the new Regulations seeks to protect individuals from receiving unsolicited communications for the purposes of direct marketing. This Regulation covers the making of unsolicited phone calls and the sending of unsolicited fax messages, email and SMS (text messages) for direct marketing purposes and gives individuals the right to prevent organisations from using electronic measures to contact them in order to sell a product or service. The requirement of this Regulation extends to all forms of marketing carried out by means of publicly available electronic communications services, including political canvassing.

Responsibility for enforcement of these Regulations falls to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and in this regard I would refer the Deputy to that Office for clarification on the means by which it is acceptable to ask members of the public to subscribe to communications from political representatives. The Deputy may be aware that in order to clarify the position in relation to the requirements of the Regulations I arranged for the Data Protection Commissioner to give a presentation to members of the Oireachtas. This presentation took place on 21 September 2011.

I understand that it would be acceptable to use an email address used for communication purposes before the new rules were enacted if the owner of the email address had consented to such use. Such communication would, of course, remain subject to the new rules as provided for in the Regulations.