Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 37:

In page 12, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following:“(4) When this section comes into operation—

(a) Irish Water shall undertake to delete all PPS numbers collected to date within a period of four weeks after this section comes into operation,

(b) the Minister will mandate the Data Protection Commissioner to produce a report confirming that Irish Water has deleted all PPS numbers previously collected,

(c) the Minister shall lay this report by the Data Protection Commissioner before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after its completion.”.

This amendment relates to the verifiable deletion of PPS, personal public service, numbers. Last week there was news coverage of how the Department of Social Protection had perceived an issue with Irish Water’s request to it for a major data dump of all PPS numbers.

A commitment that PPS numbers will be deleted is not sufficient as this must be verifiable. The numbers were regarded as potential assets that could be sold in the future so it is essential, now that the decision has been made not to proceed with the collection of PPS numbers, that those already provided by people are deleted. People must be satisfied that these numbers have been deleted and I presume the Data Protection Commissioner will certify the deletion. I would find the Data Protection Commissioner's certification of deletion to be a satisfactory resolution to this issue.

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