Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is good to see the Acting Chairman, Senator Pauline O'Reilly, in the role. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As has been mentioned, the motion does not change the substance of the regulations. In fact, it does nothing more than correct an indentation error made in the printing process in the regulations that came into effect in October last year. The regulations themselves apply to personal data in respect of which the Central Bank is the controller and which are processed by the Central Bank in pursuit of what is defined as a relevant objective and pursued by the Central Bank in carrying out a relevant function. This is defined as an important objective of general public interest and is referred to in the Data Protection Act 2018.

Under the regulations, the restrictions of data subjects' rights or controllers' obligations must be necessary and proportionate. As we know, the restriction of data is a serious issue that must be justified and justifiable. As there is an opportunity to do so, I want to ask the Minister of State whether these regulations that permit the restriction of data access in prescribed circumstances are monitored to ensure they are necessary and proportionate. The regulations also provide that where data subjects' rights or controllers' obligations are restricted, the Central Bank must notify them in writing, except in very limited circumstances. It also gives the data subject the right to submit a complaint to the Data Protection Commission.

Will the Minister of State provide an update on the number of such complaints lodged with the Data Protection Commission since the regulations came into force last year? The motion before us is not one of substance but rather a technicality. It is, in fact, a formatting issue. I understand the Central Bank policy unit in the Department of Finance identified an indentation error in regulations Nos. 3 and 7, which were published last year. The effect of the indentation is quite significant. Due to an indentation error, financial services legislation would not relate to the operation of the central credit register. This was an error in the regulations that the motion before us today seeks to address, specifically by reformatting regulations Nos. 3 and 7. Sinn Féin sees no issues with these changes but I ask the Minister of State whether the Central Bank, as a result of this indentation error, restricted data subjects' rights in a way that was in contravention of the regulations published last year and, as a consequence, could the Central Bank be open to legal challenge?