Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On the question of advice, the Deputy will be aware of the convention that we cannot publish Attorney General's advice. I and all Members of Government are bound by that. That is as frustrating for Opposition Members as it would have been for my colleagues when they were in opposition.

When the commission of investigation submitted its sixth interim report in January, it outlined that the database had been created. Subsequent to that, my Department had an engagement with the then Attorney General on the specific point. The advice we received at that stage was that any access to the records would be prohibited by law and any disclosure of the records would be an offence. Subsequently, on receipt of parliamentary questions later this year, probably in September, asking specifically about the applicability of GDPR to the archives when it came to my Department, officials in my Department engaged with staff from the Attorney General's office who were seconded to my office on that point and they concurred with the previous advice regarding prohibition of access to the archives.

When the Data Protection Commissioner came in with the specific point on the application of section 39 of the 2004 Act, as amended by the 2018 Act, on 19 October, we immediately went back to the Attorney General's office and asked for advice on that point. That advice was provided to us on 28 October. I am delighted to see that advice. It is an important statement on the applicability of GDPR. We all know that will not answer all the problems and we still need information-----