Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendment Nos. 5 and 6 both relate to the issue of a review. The Departments of Justice and Social Protection are fully accountable to and subject to oversight and regulation by the DPC for compliance with data protection legislation. The Department of Justice has embedded the principles relating to processing of personal data, as set out in Article 5 of the GDPR, across all its processing activities. In addition, the Department must be able to demonstrate compliance under the principle of accountability. The Department has appointed a data protection officer who conducts regular internal audits and compliance checks across the Department to ensure compliance with data protection obligations. They also ensure privacy notices are in place in respect of all processing activities, including data sharing, and are available to receive and review any queries in relation to such processing activities.

Article 24 of the GDPR sets out the responsibilities of data controllers. It states that the controller shall implement appropriate and technical and organisational measures to ensure and be able to demonstrate that processing is performed in accordance with the GDPR. It goes on to state those measures shall be reviewed and updated where necessary. Furthermore, section 36 of the Data Protection Act 2018 sets out what suitable and specific measures for data processing should be taken by the controller to safeguard the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects. This is also set out here in section 43 in respect of the processing of data in accordance with section 42. Such safeguards include, inter alia, limitations on access to the data, time limits for erasure of data, targeted training for those involved in processing, logging mechanisms and encryption. All such measures are being considered and further explored during the process of completing a DPIA in advance of any processing undertaken in accordance with the proposed Part 5.

As a final point, this Bill is subject to the same post-enactment review as all similar legislation. For the reasons outlined about the safeguards and review mechanisms in place, I cannot accept the proposed amendments.