Paul Coghlan (Fine Gael)

Senator Fitzgerald touched on a matter of great importance regarding the interviews which our Data Protection Commissioner, Mr. Billy Hawkes, gave yesterday about the loss of two discs in Britain. He is concerned about our jurisdiction. The protection of Irish citizens' data is of paramount importance and we are all concerned by the management of confidential data. Unfortunately, there was a case of such data being handled inappropriately by a civil servant in a particular Department and there may have been other instances. Given what was said on this topic yesterday, I ask the Leader to arrange an appropriate joint committee to hear Mr. Billy Hawkes on the subject as soon as possible.