Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 7, line 23, to delete "postcode contractor" and substitute "Data Protection Commissioner".

Essentially, a unique large-scale dataset is being introduced on a national level. To reiterate but not labour the points I made, the company involved has the first or primary role in regard to data protection and the Data Protection Commissioner has a secondary role. I would argue that the Data Protection Commissioner should have been central to this in the first instance. The amendments are designed to remove the private firm's role in handling the Eircode system and to give that role to the Data Protection Commissioner. The firm will be given wide-ranging data protection powers, but such powers should be independent of it. It is vital that the new system is as robust as possible when it comes to data protection, and that should include the direct involvement of the Data Protection Commissioner. Many of the comments I made in my opening contribution relate to this issue, so I will leave it at that.

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