Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

I note the helpful comments of my colleague on this issue. The House has established in law an independent regulator, whose sole function is to protect data collected by all institutions in the State, whether they are State-owned or privately owned and whether they are banks or otherwise. The independent regulator has a clear line of responsibility to deal with complaints made in the first instance. The commissioner makes an annual report setting out his recommendations to the Government. The commissioner would highlight the issues if he believed there were glitches in the legislation or new cultural practices, to which Deputy Mulherin adverted, in the State-owned banks or anywhere else.

It behoves people who have been wronged in the way Deputy Mulherin has suggested to make a complaint to the regulator in the first instance. In this case the regulator is the Data Protection Commissioner and it is his job to investigate the matter thoroughly. If he believed this was part of some new systemic culture within the State-owned banking sector I presume he would report it. I encourage Deputy Mulherin in concert with the people who have been wronged in this way to make a complaint in the first instance to the Data Protection Commissioner. He reports to the Government every year and I am confident he would report any new systemic problem if he believed it had been unearthed as a result of his investigations.

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