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

-----the Data Protection Commissioner had was not that we were retaining the data, but that we were not making a business case for the indefinite retention of the data. We do not indefinitely retain data; we retain them for as long as a recipient is doing business with our Department. That may be a number of years or sometimes longer, but it entirely depends on the recipient's relationship with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.