Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I thank the Minister for reading the report. I was rapporteur for the committee and it was unanimously agreed to publish this report and recommend to the Minister that he adopt a particular approach. I am a little unhappy at his response in terms of what he considers to be the issue raised in the report. Will the Minister agree the key issue and the main recommendation is to have a unique identifier system compatible with GPS? Such a system would have significant benefits across the board. Will he state whether he plans to continue with this new tendering process with the old model of using a cluster of properties rather than using the unique identifier system? I urge him to use the opportunity of this delay. In his initial statement he said that it would be in early 2011 and now he refers to the end of 2011. If this gives us a better system I am quite happy to go along with that. However, the main point to be stressed - the Minister did not clarify it and I am concerned he is avoiding it - is whether he will pursue the unique identifier option. Does he intend to talk to the Data Protection Commissioner as soon as possible in order to ensure the issue of data protection is cleared up? Is he satisfied the approach he has adopted in the past of using the cluster of up to 50 houses, is appropriate to the needs of today?

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