Mr. Denis Kelleher:

An issue arises with data sharing. There was a separate committee and there is a separate data sharing Bill. My main concern about this legislation is the scenario in which all data protection legislation is moving towards circumstances in which one will need a great deal of precision in how processes personal data. Therefore, the law does have to call out a lot of these issues. On the one hand, if a Minister has power to process a grant application, there is an implicit power to process personal data in respect of the application. On the other hand, there is much data sharing within the State sector on the basis of the Supreme Court's judgment dating from 1990 in the case Desmond v. Glackin.