Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, and I welcome the legislation, which is long overdue. It is a very sensible legislative measure. It is a complicated, technical and long Bill. As Senator Horkan said, we discussed it during the pre-legislative meetings of the finance committee. On Committee Stage we will be able to tease out the main sections of the Bill and discuss any amendments that could improve it. The Minister of State might also bring forward amendments to the Bill on that Stage.

It is not before time that the Bill was introduced. For far too long we have seen people who go into hospital having to fill out a form every time they go there. Hopefully, the Bill will deal with that. It sets out a series of important governance measures to ensure that personal data are shared by public bodies in a lawful, proportionate and transparent manner in accordance with national and EU data protection law, including the new general data protection regulation. Aside from the sharing of data, the Bill sets out how the public service manages its data in respect of how data are collected and processed, how data are kept secure and how access to data is controlled, monitored and logged. Keeping all this data will be an important job. A base register owner will be put in place. This will be very important. What happens if the information is not accurate? Will there be sanctions if it is not accurate, given that there could well be a situation where a medical card might not be processed properly or a pension or college grant could be lost? The base register owner to be established under this legislation will be very important.

This legislation will be important to ensure there is no duplication and that data will be shared and controlled. We welcome that. We had quite a good debate on the measure at the pre-legislative committee meetings. I welcome the Bill and I look forward to going through it in more detail on Committee Stage. It will be important and positive legislation in the future. It brings all the information together under one roof, one could say. How the data are processed, dealt with and stored is important with regard to the sharing of the data.