Dr. Fred Logue:

Yes, in similar scenarios. What is happening is that the data controllers are liberally redacting much of the information. I think one of the other witnesses showed an example of what they are getting. The problem is that some of the Irish legislation such as the Bill is being drafted in a way that makes automatically incompatible with EU law.

Irish public authorities are not really embracing their duties under EU law to disapply national law that conflicts with EU law. What happens then is that they will follow the national law and not disapply the EU law, which then leads to a dispute that goes to the Data Protection Commissioner. That goes into a procedure that can take years to resolve. Meanwhile, somebody who has a right to his or her information must go through this very long and technical process to get something to which he or she is entitled as a right.