Mr. Dale Sunderland:

Yes. I thank the Senator for her comments. We do not disagree at all with the view she expressed. As the body that looks at the processing of personal data and the balancing of rights, we are simply posing a number of questions that should be looked at by the Department. We are not saying that those are the solutions by any means. We are not disagreeing with what the Senator said but merely providing our analysis in that when you look at the balancing of rights, you look at a whole suite of safeguards that might be implemented and choose ones that strike the right balance and will best achieve the desired outcome, which is the appropriate balancing of rights. We raise questions the Department should consider and either rule in or rule out.

The point we are really making is that it should be clear the Oireachtas did the balancing exercise with this Bill and found, at a global level, that the balance lies in favour of the adopted child, subject to safeguards proposed in the legislation. That is what we believe the Oireachtas needs to achieve overall. The detail is in how that is done. We are not saying the safeguards proposed in the Bill are inadequate by any means, we are just asking if the proper analysis has been done to substantiate and demonstrate that the balance has been appropriately struck. That is all we are trying to achieve in our observations. I want to be clear about that.

Again, there is also a distinction between data protection and privacy. In the context of article 15(4), we are talking about the privacy rights of the mother and how that provision is satisfied so those rights are not adversely affected. As I said, we are not suggesting that these provisions need to be included in the Bill. We are just asking if all these matters have been considered in ensuring the right balance is struck between the two competing rights.