Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are taking amendments Nos. 2 to 6, inclusive, and 8 to 10, inclusive, together. The complaints procedure set out in this Bill refers to the process that owners or occupiers of property can follow in regard to a postcode related complaint. The complaints procedure is set out in the postcode contractor's code of practice. I emphasise that the postcode contractor has consulted with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner in the drafting of the code of practice.

I want to clarify and confirm to the House that the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has made a number of observations and recommendations which the postcode contractor will accept. The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has stated that once these changes have been incorporated into the code of practice, the Data Protection Commissioner will approve the code of practice. There is an important input from the Data Protection Commissioner.

Furthermore, the Data Protection Act already provides powers for the Data Protection Commissioner to investigate complaints and to enforce compliance with the Act, as I indicated earlier. These provisions apply to any postcode related complaints which the commissioner may receive. There is nothing to prevent persons complaining to the Data Protection Commissioner where there is a perceived breach of the Data Protection Act in the context of this postcodes project. It could be said that it is not necessary to put in a reference to the Data Protection Commissioner because a person could in any event make a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner under the Data Protection Acts, and those provisions are already part of our law.

I respectfully say to the Senator and to the House that it is neither necessary nor appropriate to set out investigative functions for the Data Protection Commissioner in this Bill given that there is a statutory regime already in place. As I said, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has been consulted extensively during the drafting stages of the Bill and has at no stage indicated that the provisions set out in the 1998 Act are inadequate. I trust that the Senators will accept that for those reasons, I am regrettably unable to accept these amendments.