Rónán Mullen (Independent)

Members will share my disquiet that the issue of blood is once again controversially in the news with the report that a stolen laptop in New York contained the blood records of 171,000 Irish people. This raises the need for a debate about information technology, its potential and the risks attached to the information society in which we live. Obviously there is legislation in this area but we must discuss how to protect people's data. There is also the issue of whether such data should be carried around in a laptop in the first place. When I read that such data are supposedly securely encrypted, I am even more concerned.