David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 1 recites some of the material in the original Bill but it also extends the coverage to include the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority. There is a change in paragraph (f)and where it previously stated "a person" it now states "any other person" and then adds other information as follows:

other than—

(i) a recognised school or board within the meaning of section 2 of the Education Act 1998 but including a recognised school established and maintained by an education and training board and a board of a school so established and maintained, and

(ii) a management committee established under section 37(3) of the Education Act 1998,

Then there is another new piece:

(g) a person with whom the Health Service Executive has, under section 38(1) of the Health Act 2004, entered into an arrangement for the provision of a health or personal social service by that person on behalf of the Executive,

I remember quite a number of years ago fighting on this issue of describing companies as persons. It is a little disingenuous because the average citizen reading a Bill like this would think it was a person in the sense of a human individual, although the provision clearly envisages a company. This would appear to give considerable exemptions to private companies in line with the exemptions given to public authorities and that is a cause for concern. It also allows them to call in biometric data.

I listened with great interest to the very erudite exposition by Senator Alice-Mary Higgins and, pending listening to what the Minister has to say, I am persuaded by her on amendments Nos. 37 and 38. It seems to me that she makes extremely good points in support of deleting "resulting from technical processing" and substituting a definition of genetic data which is more appropriate to the Bill. Unless I am otherwise persuaded by the Minister, I will certainly be voting with Senator Alice-Mary Higgins on this issue.