Mr. Dale Sunderland:

My apologies, the equipment works nine times out of ten. I thank Mr. Murphy for jumping in there. I want to concur with what he said. What we have seen in practice, as the previous session highlighted, is lots of complexity and uncertainty in regard to how data requests and the right of access were to be dealt with in this challenging and complex area. Therefore, we see the Bill as providing some of that clarity and certainty, as long as it is done in a way that respects the primacy of EU law and adheres to EU law, in particular in regard to the restriction of any rights.

The Senator asked what may happen absent this legislation. What will happen is what will continue to be the case, that is, each controller will be responsible for assessing access requests under Article 15 and they will each have to turn to Article 15(4) and ensure the rights of others are not adversely affected. Therefore, there is in theory and in practice, as we have seen already, some scope for divergence in terms of how requests are being handled. The Bill clarifies a lot of issues. It provides in favour of access but with safeguards, and that is the key point that appears to us from our look at the proposed heads.