Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To be honest, there has been some criticism as to why it took us as long to respond to the original findings on 15 August. There was some flurry of activity around 15 August and I think people expected us to either comply within two days or to respond within a number of days.

The issues here are complex and the legislation has been amended many times. The Chairman will be aware that with consolidated legislation one must look back etc. We considered everything to the nth degree right up to whether there is any possibility that we can strengthen the legislation. At the end of the day, we do not want to fight with a Government agency. If there was a way that we could have complied with the spirit of what the DPC was trying to do, we genuinely would have done it. We looked at the legislation and the advice from our drafters was there was no way to be clearer in what we are trying to do than what was already stated specifically in the legislation. In answer to the Chairman's direct question, we looked to see whether we could but the advice from the drafters was that it cannot be any clearer than it is.

Deputy Joan Collins asked me whether we responded to the DPC with regard to the seven days or 21 days. My Secretary General and I have written numerous letters to the DPC in recent months seeking clarity on the difference between the instructions in the letter and the instructions in the findings. We also requested meetings to find out exactly what the thinking was behind some of the instructions to see if we could find a way of avoiding going to court and to find some way of continuing the process of providing efficient services for all our people. We recognised the concerns the office of the DPC had raised and wanted to see if there was any way to assuage those concerns. We received no responses to our letters and the meetings were refused. I am not trying to be humble, and I know people probably will not believe this, but I respect the office of the Data Protection Commission and I have a particular respect for the lady who holds the single role of our regulatory authority. Neither I nor my Department want to be in conflict with her. We tried as hard as we could to find an amicable resolution but in the absence of having anything to legally enforce, I have no choice but to say that we will robustly defend our legal standing and the legislation of successive Governments. We will do exactly what we had intended and set out to do, which is to provide public services in an efficient manner.