Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I request a debate with the Minister for Education and Skills on an issue that I have already raised in this House - that is, the Department's attempt to seek large amounts of additional information on pupils. School principals are being instructed to gather information, including details on pupils' religion and their PPS numbers, whereas previously only the school would hold that kind of data. The only State agency that collect information on citizens' religious beliefs previously was the Central Statistics Office, and this information was traditionally reserved for the census, where the identities of persons were anonymised for statistical purposes. I have been contacted by a school principal who told me that she has been contacted by concerned parents, as I have been, who want to know what safeguards are in place to protect their children's sensitive data. The Department has informed the principal that failure to provide the information will be met with withholding of funding to the school in question.

We have already seen public concern about the gathering of PPS numbers by Irish Water. Indeed, Senator Quinn introduced an important Private Members' Bill and the practice was subsequently abandoned. I have grave concerns regarding the gathering of significantly more information about primary school students than has ever been collected previously. I am concerned that schools which have a duty of confidentiality to their students and parents are being threatened with funding withdrawal if they do not pass over students' PPS numbers and religious details. These are heavy-handed tactics from the Department of Education and Skills. There are real concerns about the confidentiality of the data, not to mention the need to gather it in the first place. We need the Minister to explain this policy to the House. Let us remember that the EuroMillions winner, Ms Dolores McNamara, had her private details viewed by over 100 employees in the Department of Social Protection at the time. My point is that information can be accessed once it is collected. What parents and schools need to know is what safeguards are in place, and the Minister should clarify.

Briefly, I support the concerns expressed about overspending by the HSE. I raised with the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, the culture of spin and the spending of taxpayers' money on spin doctors. There was a report in The Irish Timestoday of officials sending a note on which was written, "Say something about the context i.e. scale of €2.9m taken seriously however we pay out over Xbn per annum etc - careful not to give impression it’s OK but what would ‘good’ look at our scale of annual payroll payments."