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

Group 4 consists of amendments Nos. 8, 9, 11 and 22. Amendment No. 8 concerns the issue of commercial activity. It provides that public bodies may not share data where the body receiving the data is involved in commercial activity where the use of that data could give the body concerned a commercial advantage over other operators in the same market. When we debated this in the Seanad, there was broad support so I hope that is the case again today. The House will recall that I gave a commitment to add a provision to this effect when the Bill was before the Dáil and this is what I have done.

Amendment No. 9 to section 13 of the Bill sets out an explicit requirement that data sharing under this legislation shall not be lawful unless it is necessary for the performance of the functions of the public bodies concerned and that any sharing is proportionate to the functions of the public bodies involved and to the GDPR rights of the data subjects concerned. I know the Senator spent a lot of time on this the last time I was here.

Similarly, amendment No. 11 to section 19 requires that as part of the data sharing agreement, the parties to the agreement must provide a statement setting out why the data sharing is necessary and proportionate. That is worthwhile as well. These amendments strengthen the wording regarding the necessity for proportionality regarding sharing originally proposed and accepted by the House.

Amendment No. 22 concerns the clarification of the data sharing agreements. It is a technical amendment to section 55 to make explicit that the data protection officer shall certify that any data sharing agreement is in accordance with Article 5.1 of the GDPR where the data protection principles are set out.