Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The county manager may appoint anybody to do that from within his or her staff. There is no limit in the legislation on the number of people allowed to access this information. I am simply advocating that the mayor or cathaoirleach of the local authority should, if necessary, have access to the information. The status of the people in question as volunteers has no bearing whatever on who may access this information.

I do not accept the Minister of State's point that allowing the mayor or cathaoirleach to have access to this information is in some way throwing the doors open to widely publishing the information. I cannot see any reason for the Data Protection Commissioner to have any difficulty with a mayor or cathaoirleach having that information if the need arose.

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