Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not propose to accept amendment No. 6, but I thank the Deputy for raising the issue on Committee and Report Stages in order to allow me the opportunity of putting on the record the specific advice we have. On Committee Stage I committed to take advice on the question of executors gaining access to the register. I am advised that the duties of an executor are specifically set out in the Succession Act 1965. An executor is obliged to distribute the assets of a deceased person within a reasonable time period in accordance with the will of a deceased person. From the date of death of the deceased, the whole estate devolves and passes to the executor. The executor has numerous duties under the 1965 Act, including ascertaining all liabilities of the deceased, establishing the identity of beneficiaries, gathering and protecting the assets of the deceased and ascertaining their value, and paying debts or taxes owed. I am advised that there is no need to make specific provision in the Bill to allow an executor to have access to the register as they will be entitled to such access until the estate of the deceased has been duly administered.

With regard to spouses and guarantors, this is a separate matter. Individuals themselves have clear legal entitlements to reports and may share them with whomsoever they chose. The Deputy has proposed access for these individuals where they have reasonable entitlement to such information. It is unclear as to what constitutes a "reasonable" entitlement. A guarantor does not currently have access to any other individual’s record. It is for guarantors themselves to decide if they wish to give a guarantee and they are not forced to give a guarantee. It is for the borrower to decide if they wish to give their record to any party that is willing to undertake a guarantee on their behalf. We imagine any attempt to give "reasonable" access would be very difficult in practice. For example, who decides what is reasonable, and on what basis? Furthermore, it is difficult to see how such access could not be considered as encroaching on the individual data protection or privacy rights of the borrower concerned. For these reasons, I am unable to accept Deputy McGrath's proposal.

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