Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 9:

In page 10, between lines 20 and 21, to insert the following: “(d) a photograph or other image of him or her,”.

This is another positive amendment that we are able to make, again following on from the discussions on Committee Stage. This is an amendment to the definitions to include specific reference to photographs within the materials that can be released. We felt, and still do, that the definitions we provided would have included photographs. This relates to the items that can be left for people but, importantly, can be protected as well. Within the Bill, there are the release provisions and there are the protection provisions. At times during the debate on Committee Stage, those two elements got conflated. We want to ensure documents can be released, such that a person seeking his or her photograph can get it released, but we also want to make it clear that if a photograph is in a file and no one has asked for that file, the photograph is still protected, along with all the other information.

Amendment No. 9 provides for the inclusion of a photograph in the early life category of information and amendment No. 16 includes a new text in the definition of a relevant record to ensure clarity that photographs and images are to be safeguarded and protected where they exist within files. I signalled to Deputies on Committee Stage that I would review this definition to see if it required any expansion and I am happy that the amendment will now provide further clarity and certainty for information sources to safeguard such images. In addition, relevant bodies will be clear that such images should be released to a relevant person. Photographs can now, without any question, be released and they will be protected. There will be an obligation in that regard.

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