Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While the judge in the European Court of Justice may have been a former Member of this House, it is not necessarily bad that we do not know the names of judges in every instance. However, I agree with the thrust of what Senator McDowell said concerning the advice given by the advocate general. Obviously, it will be a matter for the full court to make a decision.

I regard data privacy as hugely important and a key European value but every right must be balanced against competing rights. In this instance, where we have the importance of having safeguards in place and member states want to use particular information to detect a crime, it appears that the concept of the right to data privacy is a supreme right and there is no balancing. I agree with the purpose outlined by Senator McDowell. That was never the intention of the GDPR, which was very much designed so that data would only be used for a specific purpose. In this purpose, the Garda is not looking for Graham Dwyer's data to find out where he ordered takeaways or anything. It is seeking to establish whether he was engaged in a crime. This is a very serious issue and it is worthy of debate. Data privacy is important but we need to get the balance right.

This week, 350 scientists and healthcare professionals, including some of the best known of their number in this country, issued a public health statement calling for the generic production of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments so that they can be made available globally. We will not beat Covid solely in Ireland and other wealthy countries. Covid must be beaten on a global basis, as we have discussed previously in the House before, and the Government needs to take a strong stance in support of global vaccination.