The purpose of this amendment is to place in statute form the duty of public bodies to share information in their possession for the purposes of the Refugee Act 1996 or of the administration of the law relating to the entry, presence in the State and removal from the State of non-nationals, and for the purpose of the operation of the Social Welfare Acts. There is currently no such statutory requirement on public bodies. However, on the basis of common law, as affirmed by the courts in Desmond v. Glackin ([1993] 3 IR 67), it can be asserted that, in the absence of a clear statutory bar on disclosure of information between Government bodies, such bodies are permitted and indeed expected to share all relevant information. Having regard, however, to the variety of statutory provisions in this matter, among them data protection legislation and social welfare legislation, and the duties of confidentiality arising under those, I regard it as prudent to make a provision putting the matter beyond doubt as regards non-nationals in the State.