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

I will speak to those and to my amendment No. 327 as well. The amendments spoken to by the Deputy relate specifically to adding text regarding not interfering with the GDPR rights of relevant persons or parents. I reassure members that it is not the intention of the Bill to, and, more importantly, the Bill does not in any way, interfere with a person's right to apply for their information through a subject access request. The Bill does contain a limited limitation of GDPR rights. That is inherent in what we are trying to do here because the right of another party to not accept the processing of their information, which is provided for under GDPR at the moment, will not be available to people seeking to prevent the release of their information to an adopted person. It is that limitation that is provided for. If these amendments are accepted to say GDPR applies as normal at all times, it will undermine the very limited exception to GDPR that we have provided here, which ensures no one can prevent an adopted or boarded out person getting access to their information.

Amendment No. 327 relates to Part 9, which provides for an information campaign. It relates to the right to access information and the right to rectification for mothers and fathers. It is a response to my consultation with parents but particularly with mothers. I know that some of that group also engaged with the committee. The amendment will ensure that a mother or father's right to access information about themselves held by an institution and, importantly, the right to rectification of inaccurate or incomplete information under GDPR is highlighted to them as part of the information campaign that will be run for three months on enactment of this legislation. When I spoke to individuals they were not aware of some of the existing rights available to them under GDPR. There was a particular concern if, say, derogatory comments or untrue information about the context of their pregnancy were placed on the file. This mandates within the information campaign that these rights of access but also rectification will be conveyed.