Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to the amendment then. I thank you for your precision, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. The amendments relate to the application of data protection legislation. In this section, I see the Minister having the scope and the power to have further legislation that provides for many of the concerns he has taken on board in the process of this debate and with the Attorney General's advice.

It has been said twice that this is technical and it is about the database. That has been quoted or said without the context of all of the other things that I have said. I am more than aware of the much wider and hurtful context, as well as the real people I have engaged with. I do not want to reduce it and I am not in any way attempting to do so. This is about a database which the Minister has said will actually assist Tusla in its role of assisting people with tracing.

The reason this legislation has to occur and has to be put in place is to preserve that information and to make it available to Tusla to assist in tracing. While I have reservations about Tusla, I believe the Minister will move quickly then thereafter to rectify or put an overarching system in place that is of greater assistance than we currently have. Within the data protection elements of this section, I do not see anything that is prohibiting this.

We cannot take this database away from the wider context that is how all of the rest of the resulting information and the collection of records of the commission has come about. We cannot separate it and treat it differently. We need to treat the whole thing in the same place. If there are matters that need to be rectified afterwards in more thoughtful legislation that can somehow go back on the past, can somehow look at the appropriateness of 30 years and how people get to put their story with their name on the record, if that is what they choose, or keep it out, if that is that they choose, then we can do that. Nothing here, however, prevents that from happening.