Mr. Barry Lowry:

As I stated earlier, this is a road to improvement and the Bill is just one step on that road. The State has invested a lot of money in legacy systems so we cannot just replace those systems overnight. It would not represent the best use of public money if we did. The role of governance, particularly as outlined in this Bill, is to start the process. First, it is a question of our having procedures in place for doing the things that public bodies need to do. In other words, it is a matter of making sure the data are accurate and that data changed in one area are updated in others. Ultimately, we would like to have electronic connectivity of databases so master records would be held in one area from which agencies would pull data, as appropriate, in order to use them for the purpose for which they are set up. That would be a significant improvement. As I said earlier, one of our immediate objectives under the eGovernment strategy is to create a portal where citizens can, at least, start an easier process of engaging with the public bodies that will hold their data and more easily find out how these bodies connect up. As Mr. Carroll stated, data-sharing agreements will be published so it will be easy for an existing customer of the Department of Social Protection to check the State bodies with which that Department has shared data and then inquire of those bodies as to whether they actually have data on him or her.