Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I think the tone adopted by the Minister of State is unfortunate because some Members on this side of the House and in the Seanad have spent a considerable number of hours preparing and working on this issue which we take incredibly seriously. A number of the points made by the Minister of State are irrelevant, while some are very worrying. Let us take the back-to-school allowance scheme. If people do not opt out of it, they will receive the allowance. That is absolutely different from other situations. If, for some bizarre reason, people decide that they want to opt out of the back-to-school allowance scheme, tough. The onus will be on them to go and claim the entitlement elsewhere. That is the import of the amendment.

Worryingly, the Minister of State spoke about the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection sharing data with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland in the context of possible grants for which people may not even be aware that they are eligible. That certainly should not be the import of data sharing under the Bill. It was meant to be about a situation where if a person went to body A, the transfer of information to body B should take place in connection with a service for which the person had applied. It should not be the State coming up with these things. I guarantee that if the Minister of State goes down this path and does not make the correction, he will open up the possibility of even greater fines being incurred than originally envisaged in bringing about the legislation. He made points about Deputy Eamon Ryan's amendment, but ours would provide for an opt-out.

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