Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The provisions of the GDPR provide for exemptions from the requirement for consent for processing with a view to safeguarding public health, but that is not necessarily what health insurance companies do. The processing of health data is not necessary for the management of the health service. It obviously has some function in that regard, but I do not think it should do so without having to ask for our permission. For example, VHI is running a TV advertisement campaign asking members to sign up to be DNA tested by it in order that it can help an individual to find out what future ailments to which he or she might be genetically disposed, but that is not the reason it is doing it. It is doing it in order that it can charge higher premiums to individuals who are predisposed to something that could trigger an illness later. It wants our data in order that it can levy higher premiums. It is not doing it for the good of the health service. There is no reason we should give such data to it; it should have to obtain an individual's consent first. That is all we are asking for.

It is an even bigger problem in the case of the banks because this allows for an exemption for the banks to process health data in the case of mortgage applications. The Government's proposal is that the banks can do this without obtaining the consent of the person concerned. That is ludicrous. Everybody knows that when he or she fills in the application form for a mortgage, he or she will have to fill in numerous forms. I do not think one of them being a consent form would be too onerous. It woud not stop the banks or insurance companies from obtaining the information, but they would have to have our consent first.