Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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101. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide an update on the administration of her Department’s primary online database project, involving the collection and storage of information on children in the primary school system, including her plans to defund schools if they do not co-operate with the project, and her consultation with parents on information that is to be collected. [25912/15]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The intention is to ask the Minister to further elaborate on her proposal to collect and store data on primary schoolchildren, and the fact that there is a proposal that non-co-operative schools may be defunded if they do not co-operate with the primary online database, despite its changes.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The primary online database was rolled out across the primary school system during the 2014 to 2015 academic year. The primary online database, POD, will allow the Department to more closely monitor and evaluate progress and outcomes of pupils at primary level, to validate school enrolment returns for grant payment and teacher allocation purposes, and to follow up on pupils who do not make the transfer from primary to post-primary level.

A revised fair processing notice was issued in April 2015. The fair processing notice outlines the legal basis under which schools can ask parents or guardians for information and share it with the Department of Education and Skills. The fair processing notice is available on my Department's website.

The vast majority of schools have now entered their pupil data on the POD. The POD will become the basis for grant payments and teacher allocations from 2016 to 2017 onwards. The primary school annual census return will continue to be the basis for grant payments and teacher allocations for 2015 to 2016. A mechanism has been put in place already to allow for schools to create non-identifiable records for currently enrolled pupils whose parents object strongly to providing data for the POD. This means that those pupils will continue to be counted for teacher allocation and grant payment purposes.

Throughout the process consultations have been held with the education stakeholders, including the National Parents Council Primary. The feedback from schools and parents has been very positive since the reissuing of the POD fair processing notice and the issuing of Circular 0025/2015 which provided further practical information to schools about the POD.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I do not know whether the Minister is aware that the Data Protection Commissioner's office confirmed only two weeks' ago that even after the changes she introduced in April to the primary online database, that it still might not be legal. Could the Minister confirm whether further legislation is required to underpin her proposals on the primary online database, if a further review is to take place, or if she expects to again change some of the proposals contained within a system, which as the she said, is already up and running? It is a major issue for the Data Protection Commissioner's office to raise concerns about the information that is being collated by the Department. Unless legislation is introduced, the data that is requested to be transferred might not be taken, stored and retained on a fully legal basis. Could the Minister elaborate on the legal basis of the information and its storage?

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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We have responded to all the concerns of the Data Protection Commissioner and the April memo was prepared partially as a result of that. In response to the specific question of whether amending legislation is required, I wish to inform the Deputy that my Department is engaged with the Department of Social Protection, under whose remit the making of the necessary regulations fall, to make the agreed amendments to the Social Welfare (Consolidated Claims, Payments and Control) Regulations 2007 to bring the particular data fields in issue, including mother's maiden name, enrolment date, enrolment source, leaving date, leaving destination, integrated indicator, indicators for receipt of learning support, pupil type and special class type within the scope of regulation 189. That is expected to be concluded in the coming weeks.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I do not know whether that captures the concerns of the Data Protection Commissioner's office which were outlined on 18 June.

Having investigated the primary online database, POD, the Data Protection Commissioner's office still had concerns, as did parents who had objected to the storage of sensitive data, that were valid even following the changes made in April. That is the key point. While they acknowledge that the Minister made changes in April, major changes are still required. I do not know whether the changes will be fully captured in the legislation to which the Minister referred which will not be brought before the House before the schools return after the summer break, which means that some of the data will still be online. Some parents who have asked what data are being retained have been very surprised and concerned at what has been and is being retained about their schoolgoing children.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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We have agreed, in association with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, on the creation of non-identifiable records. My officials have had extensive and ongoing communication with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner on the issues it has raised and we accept their validity. The Data Protection Commissioner is satisfied that we have responded to the concerns, including the one to which I referred in my reply regarding our interaction with the Department of Social Protection.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The next question is in the name of Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice. Given that he is absent, we will move on to Question No. 103.