Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. We live in an era when our privacy is under constant threat but sometimes we have to make concessions in that regard for the greater good. The Minister of State made a couple of points that are fairly central to why we should not oppose this.

On the second page of his submission, he states: "Article 30 paragraph 4 of 4AMLD means there is an EU legal obligation on Ireland to ensure that the Central Register is accurate". The experts tell us that personal public service, PPS, numbers are necessary in order to ensure the accuracy of the central Register of Beneficial Ownership, which is an anti-money laundering device. The Minister of State also states: "To ensure personal information is protected, the PPSN is encrypted, not visible to RBO staff and is used only at a specific point in time (i.e. at the point of filing) to validate the PPSN and date of birth against the data that the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection hold for that PPSN". I am glad he has given that assurance and I hope it will be honoured.

The Minister of State went on to say at the end of his presentation that this is a temporary device to prevent the EU from fining us and will ultimately be confirmed in primary legislation. As such, the best time to have a detailed debate on this is in debates on the primary legislation.