Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Again, I will be happy to come back to the Deputy later in the week with a more comprehensive response. I appreciate that she has raised this issue before. There is a distinction between public and records. Public records are owned by the State; they are in our possession. Private records are not owned or in the possession of the State. People have rights in the context of private records. Under existing data protection and privacy legislation, a person has the right, in some circumstances, to access information about himself or herself where that information is held privately. I appreciate that the Deputy is talking about more than that. She is concerned with giving people access to records relating to them and ensuring that those records are not destroyed and are held in a way in which people can access them. That is something I am briefed on, but I have not been briefed on it for several weeks. I know that the working group is due to report quite soon. I will come back to the Deputy with a more comprehensive response by the end of the week.

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