Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the matter I raise is not relevant, the Chairman may dismiss me. The current scheme - I do not know its exact name - sees €1 million provided annually, but only €430,000 has been drawn down. I was looking at the figures yesterday. Not to disagree with my colleague, but the reason is that there are problems with drawdown. There is a policing committee which theoretically includes everybody in the community, all of whom have a seat at the table. However, the data controller has to be the local authority and most local authorities, with the exception of Fingal County Council which has €100 million on deposit, do not have a red cent. Sligo County Council, in particular, can barely pay its librarians, which has been an issue in recent years. For this reason, local authorities are not queuing up to assume additional overhead costs and further responsibilities with GDPR and everything else to be the data controller. We could usefully suggest to the Department that it needs to review who can apply for the scheme and who can be the data controller. Perhaps the scope can be broadened. There is a network of community councils - chambers of commerce, for example, to which Deputy Cassells referred - and others, who, if provided with adequate training, may be better placed to be the data controller given the financial constraints on most local authorities.