Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is great news. There has always been that uncertainty. It is in effect a unique identifier number, notwithstanding the anomalies my colleague Deputy Burke has referred to. With regard to records, I am christened John but use the name Seán, for example. Some people use a fada on that name and some do not. People get married or use the Irish version of their name when they may have been christened with an English name. All that sort of stuff changes. A number of things do not change. Your date of birth does not change and your gender does not change - although assigned genders can. A PPS number in conjunction with a date of birth should be perfectly acceptable for all of this. The HSE could even combine the two of them if it wanted, like banks do with BIC and IBAN numbers. When this Bill goes through, if it provides certainty around the use of the PPS number I will welcome that.

Eircodes are interesting to see if there are geographical spreads of certain conditions that are more prevalent in the north west or the south east, for example. That would make sense. I know Eircodes change and people move but for capturing the data at that moment, that would be interesting information.

Part 7 relates to the national health information guardian. Would that involve establishing an office within the Department of Health or would that be an individual? What kind of role would the witnesses see there?