Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

We take data protection extremely seriously. There is a range of issues. People in the Department have to have access to data in order to carry out their business. If somebody presents, obviously the data is captured and that has to be captured in the systems. They must have systems access in order to carry out their business. We try to ensure that people only access the cases in which they are directly involved. Obviously if people access things in which they are not involved, that is a problem. We deal with it. We have a range of different procedures. We have an ongoing annual statement that staff are invited to sign indicating that they are aware of their obligations and aware of the practices and protocols around accessing data.

There is an ongoing range of presentations to staff around the country. There are all kinds of different communication initiatives. We have a data protection awareness week that is carried out and highlighted. We have a high-level working group in place. We have a constant programme of meetings with the Data Protection Commissioner to avail of best practice knowledge and apply that knowledge back in to the Department.

It is about awareness raising in the first instance. Of the data protection breaches that come to our attention, the vast majority of them would be accidental breaches. There are some serious data protection breaches - there is no doubt about it - but they are dealt with very seriously.