Mr. Muiris O'Connor:

The legitimate third parties will be people such as health researchers, policymakers, those involved in public health and so on. If we look at the relevant purposes set out in the proposed legislation, these include health service management goals, having a dynamic health service and public health clinical audits. A clinical audit team in a hospital, for example, could apply, if a national study were being undertaken, to the national health information authority to gain access to information relevant to that clinical audit study. The only information that audit team would get, though, would be anonymised or, if a very strong case were made, pseudonymised. No personally identifiable information will be provided. Any time personally identifiable information is required, the consent of the individual concerned will be required.