Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 52:

In page 29, line 2, to delete “and special categories of personal data”.

Much of the wording of section 38 is taken directly from the GDPR. I still think we have reason to be concerned about what the section might permit. Article 23 of the GDPR is the relevant part. It does not make an explicit distinction between the processing of personal and special categories of data but, throughout the GDPR, we are told that special categories of data should be treated with special care, hence we are attempting to separate it in amendment No. 56 and in the related amendments, for example, amendment No. 52, separating the two categories of data, personal data and "special categories of personal data".

I accept that Article 23 of the GDPR refers to the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of criminal offences, which is inserted in the Bill in section 38(b). The problem these amendments try to address relates to the scope the word "preventing" introduces with regard to criminal offences, particularly relating to special categories of personal data, such as religious beliefs, political opinion, ethnicity and so on. Section 38 of the Bill is not part of Part 5 of the Bill, which relates to processing of personal data for law enforcement purposes. The processing of data referred to in section 38 does not apply to An Garda Síochána, for example. The kind of processing proposed in section 38 might well be done by private companies. Section 38 essentially permits racial profiling if we include the processing of special categories of data. A body other than the Garda, for example, can profile a person based on ethnicity, religion and political opinions in the name of preventing, in the broadest sense, a criminal offence.