Mr. Antóin Ó Lachtnáin:

I would like to add to that on behalf of Digital Rights Ireland. We need to think about cases in which information on vulnerable people, such as children, is spread among a number of institutions. It is one type of data when it is spread among schools, but it is another type of data when it is taken into a central shared resource. It is like an Excel spreadsheet or a customer relationship management system. If someone with access to data of this nature does a search, he or she might be able to find a list of all the vulnerable children or pensioners in a particular area. Suddenly a humdrum database for the administration of education or social services becomes a source of information which might be useful to someone who wants to exploit the people on that database. It is important to understand that the sharing of data can change the characteristics of that data. It is not just a matter of moving it from place to place.