Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Certainly I will examine the process that the Minister is going to make available in the Library. It is important that people understand the process. It is not only a question of public concern in terms of learning lessons. There were concerns in the Department of Social Protection as well. Were the concerns of those in the Department of Social Protection discussed when this was being framed in the first instance? Was the Minister privy to the detail given that it involved a previous Minister? Does the Minister believe the process amounts to good practice?

I got a letter from the Data Protection Commissioner stating the legal structure for the process of the collection of personal data had been signed into law under the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013. The legal basis has the effect of setting aside the relevant restrictions on the processing of personal data as set out in section 2 of the Data Protection Act, which would apply otherwise. There should be some acceptance that this is bad practice in the context of future legislation. We should not set aside the normal process under the Data Protection Acts for the purposes of providing for the collection of PPS numbers. That would seems to me to be bad practice. We have the Data Protection Acts for a good reason. There are in place to protect individuals and their privacy. The mistake was to include the provision in the first instance. At the least, lessons should be learned about how we proceed in future.

I am keen to hear the Minister's reply. It was interesting to read the articles about the concerns of the Department of Social Protection. There will be costs associated with deleting the data. I accept the data come in different formats and therefore we must verify them. I am prepared to withdraw my amendment on foot of the assurances we have been given.

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