Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator McDowell has stolen all my lines. There are bona fides in the presenting of this Bill, but we can never say anything on it without prefacing our remarks by acknowledging the context, namely, the appalling wounds and trauma and the retraumatising that is happening in the course of this discussion. I believe there was an original intent to see a legal problem, see a deadline and deal with the legal problem in the hope that doing so would release information as opposed to withhold it. In the public narrative around that, however, the intent has been changed and, at times wantonly, misrepresented. We need to get back to the basics, in that this Bill is about assisting people in accessing information.

In that regard, I welcome the Minister's amendments and that he has listened to what was without question a worthy debate in this House. I agree with Senator Higgins's view, in that the Minister will now receive these data as a consequence of his amendments. That is welcome. However, it puts him in control. Currently, there is legislation to tell him what he has to do. Regardless of whether we liked it or whether it was intentional, that Act was amended by the GDPR. In transposing the GDPR into Irish law, we made an amendment to the 2004 Act to allow for the competing balancing act between Articles 23 and 15. However, there have been subsequent EU rulings on the entitlement to information. There is a fundamental human right in this regard.

While I agree with the spirit of Senator Higgins's amendments, the Minister needs to undertake a data protection impact assessment, DPIA, quickly. Ideally, it should be done at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, but it must be done with a view to determining how to set in place a mechanism that takes into account all of the matters we want to address, including the pressing need of people to have their own information and their lawful right to access same, without creating unintended consequences for other commissions, witnesses and situations. We must consider that wider context. Unfortunately, the Government does not have the luxury of addressing one situation and it must consider the ramifications. That process must take place, ideally in the Oireachtas committee or some other specially created forum. We could invite experts and stakeholders and people from all sides of the Oireachtas to ensure that we reach a solution to the issues being presented by people who want contact with their relatives and to know who they are, where they came from and why their lives transpired as they did. They are entitled to that information, and the GDPR provides for that, but we have a balancing to do under Article 23. There are competing rights, but the rights of individuals should trump everything else. Politics is supposed to be the art of the possible. Without politicising it, we can move together and do that in acknowledgement of people's hurt. It is important that we do so quickly.

I echo the Leader's question. Now that the Minister will have the archive, what does he plan to do with it?