Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman and Senators for their contributions. I welcome that there has been such engagement on the Bill from the Members of the House, who are obviously very up to speed with its contents.

I am very anxious to attend to the personal portal mentioned by Senator Higgins. The Tallinn Declaration, which I signed on behalf of the Government a number of months ago, is the EU response to how data sharing in public bodies should proceed. As part of that process, I engaged with our counterparts in Estonia on the concept of the portal. The portal is very important because it gives people an opportunity to see for what purpose the Government of Ireland, its agencies, Departments and public bodies are looking at their data and whether there is anything they can do about that. Legislation is needed to establish a portal of that nature and that is dealt with by a provision of the Bill.

Another very important provision of the Bill relates to situations such as that of a person who worked for Fáilte Ireland, the Shannon Foynes Port Company, Limerick County Council and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and then became a teacher and accrued pension entitlements in each public body. Although such information can currently be shared, that is done without legal basis. There is a tangible financial element in regard to public servants whose information may need to be transferred. That is currently being done in a fog because of the absence of legislation.

The Acting Chairman welcomed the Bill and I thank him for that. Senator Paddy Burke referred to the amount of work that had been done in terms of pre-legislative scrutiny.Senator Conway-Walsh was absolutely correct. I was very anxious that I would introduce the Bill in the Seanad as opposed to the other House for a number of reasons and I discussed it with the Leader, Senator Buttimer. I felt we would probably get a bit more time here on Committee Stage and that we might be able to tease out some of the elements to which Senator Higgins and Senator Conway-Walsh referred. I reiterate that this Bill is specific to public bodies, which are defined under section 9 of the Bill. Section 9(4) states that in the future, if a public body is not established today but is established in the future, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform at the time and the line Minister with responsibility for that public body can prescribe that the conditions of this Bill would apply to that public body. That is important because the definition of a public body is not restrictive. The Schedule relates to the commercial elements of some of our semi-State companies - the Central Bank, for obvious reasons, and the Defence Forces, for very obvious reasons as we do not want the security of the State being compromised and so on.

As to whether it will be subject to freedom of information, I have an open mind on that and we can discuss that again on Committee Stage. I am big fan of the Freedom of Information Act and if this is something that can improve the Bill, it is something at which we can look together.

We spent an awful lot of time in the Department discussing governance and part of the delay is probably down to me because, as a former member of the Committee of Public Accounts, governance is something I really value. On the type of board we are going to introduce in the Bill, I want it to be robust to ensure that when the data-sharing agreements are brought before the board, it can really challenge them and see the robustness of the agreements. Ultimately, these are agreements between public body A and public body B, with public body A being the database registry owner and B being the user. They have to be strong and robust and there is a requirement for a good governance board to assess that capability. As well as that, the board will have to have competence in regard to assessing what the public submits by way of consultation, which is very important. On exemptions, as I said, they are purely to ensure the commercial nature of it. On audit trails, the Bill provides for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to introduce standards under a statutory instrument, which will undoubtedly lead to a greater level of commitment to transparency and robustness.

Is the Bill secure? We must ask ourselves whether the current situation is secure. The reason we are bringing forward the Bill is that we have identified, on foot of the GDPR and all the discussions we have had in these Houses on data sharing, that this is a fundamental weakness. The Government, public bodies and entities trying to deliver services are sharing information on behalf of, and on the instruction of, people and we need to put a legal framework in place. If we continue to do what we are doing, which is trundling along with a kind of it will be all right on the night attitude, we are not doing the right thing. This is a scaffold that will protect the people.

The Data Protection Commissioner was consulted but the commissioner and the commission made it clear they did not want to be part of the operation, governance and management of this Bill because they are the arbitrator ensuring things are done right. One cannot be the judge, jury and executioner and at the same time be the victim. It is important the data governance board is as strong as we have set out.

I believe I have answered the question necessity and proportionality. I refer to section 12 and it will be constituted and mirrored against the GDPR. We believe it is proportionate, timely and is in keeping with the advent of the GDPR. We have identified a gap in the market which we need to regularise.

I will welcome any engagement that will take place over the next couple of days. It is envisaged Committee Stage will be taken fairly soon. There is a tangible and real benefit to this in the short term in the context of pensioners. I will be open to suggestions on any improvements that can be made in terms of tidying up the Bill but ask for the continued support of the Seanad. I thank the Seanad and, in particular, the Senators who contributed by way of the finance committee and the Senators who are here this evening. I look forward to Committee Stage.