Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 45:

In page 27, to delete lines 27 to 29.

We are interested in listening to the Sinn Féin position on this amendment. We might agree with Sinn Féin in opposing the entire section but for starters, I will set out the position on our amendments.

The section seems to give far too much scope to third party data processing for non-statutory schemes, especially given that the section describes a situation whereby the consent of the data subject will be bypassed. I do not believe it would be too burdensome to simply require the relevant third parties working on non-statutory projects to obtain consent to process personal data.

Amendment No. 46 represents a small change but it could be an important one. Under section 37, as currently worded, it seems that the processing of personal data in the public interest would be possible without being specified in regulations made by the Minister. Who then would decide what constitutes the public interest? Who gets to process data in the public interest? Our amendment seeks to make processing in the public interest explicitly dependent on regulations. In other words, ministerial regulations should be mandatory for such data processing.

Amendment No. 47 is the same as amendment No. 43, which we discussed earlier. Amendment No. 48 attempts to introduce some more detail of Article 23 of the general data protection regulation into the Bill. Article 23 details the restrictions member states can impose on the rights of data subjects for various reasons. These could include reasons of national security. Article 23(2) lists specific provisions that any legislative measure referred to in Article 23(1) shall contain, where relevant. Our amendment is designed to introduce more of these specific provisions into the Bill. It includes a reference to how storage periods for data should be specified in any regulations introduced. Moreover, limitations should be specified as to the purpose of data processing.

Amendment No. 49 represents an attempt to introduce an extra layer of protection that we believe is necessary given the wide-ranging powers conferred on Ministers by section. The lines are taken from elsewhere in the Bill, including section 48, which borrows heavily from the GDPR wording.