James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know that we can all have a reputation for being difficult. I do not believe for one moment that the Deputy is being difficult. I appreciate that he has a duty of care to the people who elected him to reassure them and I am delighted to have the opportunity to do so for the people who elected me. The only value in this from a researcher's point of view would be to be assured they have the right person's clinical data which they could not get unless they already had consent from the person concerned. That is the only way I see this being of any value to them, where they can be absolutely assured that this clinical data relates to a particular person. It does not change anything under the law on research. The current pieces of research that are ongoing, which people have a right to, is all based on the premise of having the consent of the person concerned and that does not change in any way. Therefore, the only value this would have from a researcher's point of view is a further reassurance that they have the right person's information, that they are not looking at somebody else's information. Let us call a spade a spade, we have had mix-ups in people's files in the past. Who is to know, when one goes back, what one is looking at. The system is only a further protection in many respects and it is only of value from a researcher's point of view in reassuring them. I have the list of what is on the register - name, address, forename, date of birth, place of birth, gender, all former surnames, mother's surname, address, nationality, personal public service number, date of birth in the case of a deceased individual, signature, photograph, and any other particulars prescribed, excluding clinical information. It is really only an extra layer of reassurance for research purposes but from the clinical patient point of view this is hugely important for a whole host of reasons that we have already mentioned.