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A call has been made for Sinn Féin to “decommission” its voter database as the only way to end the ongoing controversy about the information the party collects and stores on the Irish electorate.
Fine Gael Senator John Cummins also said he hoped the German data protection commissioner would make inquiries about the party’s Abú (which translates from Irish as forever) system which was stored in London but has since been moved to Frankfurt, Germany following Brexit.
Mr Cummins hit out at Sinn Féin’s claim the party used the system the same way as every other party and said there is not one single central electoral register but 31 separate registers, one for each local authority.
The Tipperary Senator also suggested the party wanted to keep the Abú system “at arms’ length” from the Data Protection Commissioner because “the secret data base is in fact a well-financed Sinn Féin asset and wasn’t declared by the party in their Sipo (Standards in Public Office Commission) returns”.
Mr Cummins was speaking in the Seanad on Friday in the wake of the ongoing controversy about the online database containing the details of up to 3.5 million of the electorate, and reports that Sinn Féin members are encouraged to add information on voters including their perceived level of support for the party.
The UK’s data protection watchdog has also confirmed that it will be making enquiries about the database. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner has already asked questions about the system.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald revealed on RTÉ’s Prime Time it was stored in Frankfurt by “an outstanding and trusted company” called Linode.
Ms McDonald said when the database was set up, the party had a data compliance officer but not a data protection officer. It has since employed one.
She stressed that the system “isn’t something that is unique to us. Every political party, every candidate who runs an election canvasses the vote, has access to the electoral register and it’s part and parcel of the process,” she said, adding that “it is the returns, if you like, from canvasses”.
But in the Seanad, Mr Cummins said “that argument doesn’t stand up to scrutiny because everyone in this House knows that there is no centralised elector register in this country.
“There are 31 individual registers across 31 individual local authorities. It seems the Oireachtas database is good enough for every other political party in this country but it’s not good enough for Sinn Féin.”
He said there was “something really dodgy about all of this. It seems that Sinn Féin is operating a transnational cyberweb of data bases with unknown individuals being trained to elicit information from people on social media that they can combine with their voter data base system and to borrow a phrase from their training manual ‘pinpoint them in the real world’”.
Cathaoirleach of the Seanad Mark Daly intervened to urge caution on the issue of privilege. Mr Cummins said he always exercised caution.
Sinn Féin Senator Fintan Warfield asked if the issue was relevant to the order of business. He suggested there were reasons the database was not registered in Dublin.
“Is it because Sinn Féin want to keep it at arms’ length from the Data Protection Commissioner?” asked Mr Cummins. “It is because the secret data base is in fact a well-financed Sinn Féin asset and wasn’t declared by the party in their Sipo returns, he said.”
He concluded that “the only way this controversy can be brought to an end is for Sinn Féin to decommission this database” and suggested a “very serious debate” was needed on electoral reform.
Seanad deputy leader and Fine Gael Senator Sean Kyne also said there were issues around the electoral register and whether Sinn Féin was circumventing Sipo rules. He also queried whether Sinn Féin asked voters if they could store personal information, a requirement since the implementation of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).