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

I might speak generally to the issue of records first and then deal specifically with the role of this agency. Access to information is absolutely crucial to survivors and indeed to a wider group of people including adoptees. Last week we brought forward the draft heads of the birth information and tracing legislation which provides the best guarantee of access to all information and I look forward to working with this committee on passing that important legislation.

In terms of the archive of the commission of investigation, as per the 2004 legislation under which the commission was established, there are restrictions on access. However, following the decision of the Attorney General, we were able to clarify that the right under GDPR to access one's personal information did apply to the entire archive and I said I would ensure that right was upheld when the archive transferred to my Department from February. We have just over 150 subject access requests in hand at the moment and are working our way through them. As this is the first time we are applying these subject access requests and this is the first round that we have done, our team, which was built to address the requests for access, is not currently reaching the initial one-month deadline. However, we are confident that we will have full replies to the subject access requests in the near future. A small number have been fully answered already and we are in the process of fully answering the rest.

On the issue of the treatment of records by the agency, the traditional FOI rules will apply to the agency, as will GDPR rights and subject access requests about one's own information. The one area that we have to protect is the data the agency will hold and is designed to bank, namely people's DNA. DNA information is incredibly sensitive and is an incredibly powerful tool and it is very important that there are robust protections in place so that where somebody gives a DNA sample in order to allow for identification, that it is strongly protected. That is what we are seeking to do with this legislation and the protections will be strong and robust. That is why we are legislating for them here but beyond that, we are not seeking to put any special regime of protection around the information and the records of this agency. The same regime that applies to other State agencies, both in terms of protection and access to information, will be provided for.

There is a wider issue, to which the Deputy alluded, regarding access to information beyond the archive of the commission of investigation, in the wide range of State institutions, State bodies and private actors that held information about individual women and children who were in care during the twentieth century. The Government has committed to address that in terms of a records and memorialisation centre. We want to get the information and tracing legislation passed first because that is so vital to allow immediate and full access to birth certificates and other records but it is the Government's intention to provide for the wider element of records and memorialisation as well. I hope that addresses the question.