Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let me be absolutely clear - the unauthorised accessing of people's credit card details, e-mail addresses, contact details and so on is a criminal act, and there are two ways in which we investigate those. One is via the Data Protection Commissioner, who has specific responsibility in respect of data, who has already carried out one inspection and who is now carrying out a follow-up inspection. Second, the investigation of criminal activity is a matter for the Garda Síochána. It is carrying out an investigation of it.

I want to assure the Deputy that the Government takes the issue very seriously and very urgently. There are a number of Government Departments that have responsibility in terms of getting the reports from the Garda Síochána, the Data Protection Commissioner and follow-up activity in respect of this. In response to the Deputy's question, I would take responsibility to co-ordinate the responses from the different Government Ministers so that there is, as he says, a whole-of-Government response to what is a very serious issue that has arisen in respect of credit card fraud.

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