Mr. Barry Lowry:

In terms of the single customer view database, the role of DPER - it is my own office, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer - is as data processor. We do nothing with the data itself other than collect and process it on behalf of other Departments. Those Departments are all legally bound to only use the data that they are entitled to use.

With respect to the GDPR coming into effect in May, every Department is appointing a data protection officer whose role is to look at how his or her Department uses citizen data, whether there is a legal underpinning of that, whether the data sharing agreements the Department has in place are still appropriate and to take appropriate action.