Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We think it is utterly necessary. There are ways of dealing with this very comprehensively. We have to see it in context. We are talking about the most sensitive data in most instances. These are the data covered under equality legislation and so on, all the categories on which a person could potentially be discriminated against. That is why it is particularly important that they are given extra protections and so on.

We can look at what happens in other countries. We need to consider the time implication of an oversight role for committees or the Dáil, which might be onerous. One answer to that might be to consider setting up an Oireachtas data protection committee to scrutinise regulations made under this Act. The UK has a digital affairs committee and Germany has a similar one. Nothing is stopping us from creating one given our position as data regulator now for most of Europe because of all the major technology companies having their headquarters here. It is incredible that we do not have a data protection committee and that should be considered.

Depending on how it falls, we will also support Sinn Féin's proposal to oppose the section completely. We see this as a halfway house that would be a better solution.