Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 1 Oct 2003

Vol. 571 No. 2

Written Answers. - Electoral Register.

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

312 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the RFA form distributed to local authorities in 2002 conflicts with the Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003 and with the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2002 and that it has caused confusion among local authorities and has increased their costs; and if he now proposes to withdraw the form immediately and replace it with an opt out version that complies with the Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003 which would be in accordance with a report published by the Department of the Taoiseach. [21359/03]

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Cullen)

In response to concerns expressed by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and more generally about the use of the register of electors for other purposes, the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001 provided for the compilation of a 'full' and 'edited' register of electors. An edited register will contain the names of persons who have indicated that they have no objection to their details being used for purposes other than electoral or other statutory uses.

The RFA form used by registration authorities to compile the register of electors contains a question which enables an elector to indicate whether they or other persons included in the form wish their name and address to be used for a purpose other than electoral or other statutory use. For clarity, that question requires a yes or no reply. The overriding concern in this matter is to preserve the integrity of the register of electors for its primary purpose and to make the choice of whether to appear on the edited register, and the implications of that choice, as clear as possible to electors.