Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I only became aware of the amendment this evening and am not as well briefed as my colleagues who are present but I wish to share with the Minister of State some of the correspondence sent to me on the matter. The correspondence states that the new section 26A the Government proposes to insert into the Data Protection Act relates to information shared by citizens that could be deemed to be confidential. In essence, the DPC could impose a gag on some information coming into the public domain.

The new section 26A goes far beyond just truly confidential information. There has been no public discussion on this problematic limitation on freedom of speech in this last-minute amendment. Truly confidential information is already protected and the aim here is to clearly limit the freedom of speech.

Reference is made to the Data Protection Commission having fined Meta over €1.6 billion for various practices. The correspondence states that this would never have happened or cases will not be allowed to be brought or could now be shut down. It also states that, if enacted, the amendment may further damage the proper flow of information between the Data Protection Commission and its peers across the European Union because the DPC will have the power to designate as confidential material that should be shared with other European authorities.

I echo the calls of other Members in the Chamber. This is a last-minute amendment. I also support other Deputies in asking why and how this amendment came so late in the day without any kind of scrutiny. Why it is being proposed and who is pushing to have it proposed? I ask the Minister of State to withdraw the amendment. He may seek to reintroduce it but let us first have proper public and pre-legislative scrutiny and see where that goes. This proposal has come late in the day. I caution the Minister of State about making bad law. We do not want to introduce very significant powers for the DPC. For many obvious reasons, that could be a negative development. I ask the Minister of State to withdraw the amendment inserting the new section 26A.

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