The Oireachtas is to install CCTV cameras in Leinster House to monitor TDs and senators using fobs to enter the Dail and Seanad, after concerns were expressed that some were getting colleagues or staff to sign in on their behalf.
The Leinster House authorities have decided against introducing a biometric system using fingerprint or facial recognition technology after some politicians raised questions about the privacy of their data and whether it could be compromised in a cyberattack. Instead “passive CCTV” will be used, with footage checked only if a politician’s attendance is in doubt.
TDs need to attend the Dail for 120 days each year in order to receive their full travel and accommodation expenses, which range from €6,300 for those living in Dublin to €32,535 per annum for those living further than 360km from Leinster House. They can “fob in” at one of 25 electronic machines located around Leinster House at any time of the day. There is no requirement to “fob out”.
After it was revealed that some TDs had been voting for each other in the Dail, a number of deputies questioned the integrity of the system. Paul Murphy, a People Before Profit/Solidarity TD, said there was “no system in place to ensure it is the deputy who is fobbing in, as opposed to a member of their staff or another deputy”.
Last year the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, a cross-party body that runs Leinster House, commissioned Trevor Reaney, a former clerk of the Stormont assembly, to research ways to increase trust. It is understood his report concluded that the system needed improvement. Although there is no evidence of abuse, there is no way to prove a TD or senator is the person fobbing in.
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Malcolm Byrne, a Fianna Fail senator, was one of those who raised concerns about fingerprint or facial recognition technology. “When I saw reports that facial recognition was being considered, I was incredulous,” he said yesterday. “[Not] enough thought was being given to how that data would be stored, and how secure it would be. We saw what can happen with the HSE cyberattack, so I warned we should be careful before fingerprinting or taking retinal scans of every member of our parliament.”
It is understood facial recognition was one of the options proposed in Reaney’s report, but the Oireachtas commission decided against it following the concerns raised by Byrne and others. Plans to introduce a fingerprint attendance system in the European parliament were recently delayed after concerns were raised by the European Data Protection Supervisor, an independent EU body.
Murphy believes the new system could still be open to abuse. “There was absolutely no deterrent to cheating the old system,” he said. “The CCTV improves that, but it seems the Oireachtas authorities will only check it if there is a complaint. I still think some sort of biometric system is the only way to provide the public with absolute confidence that politicians are not manipulating their attendance records to inflate their expenses.”
Murphy also expressed concern that the new system would not record the time when a TD or senator clocked in. Minutes of last month’s Houses of the Oireachtas Commission meeting show that TDs and senators will continue to use the present VisionTime fobbing-in system provided by the Dublin company FlexTime.
“The system is set up to record when staff clock in, but does not record when TDs and senators clock in. That never made sense to me,” Murphy said. “There’s also no need to clock out. So you can clock in at 5pm and go home five minutes later but it’s still regarded as a full day for attendance purposes.”
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In 2019 it emerged that the independent TD Michael Healy-Rae had attended a funeral in Kerry on a day when he had fobbed in at the Dail. Murphy asked the ceann comhairle to investigate, saying the TD had questions to answer unless he had “mastered the art of bilocation”. Healy-Rae denied any wrongdoing, saying he clocked in early in the morning and left for Kerry soon after, a practice permitted under Dail attendance rules.
The Houses of the Oireachtas confirmed this weekend the passive CCTV monitoring system had been chosen, but could not say yet when it would be implemented.
