Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 670: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will clarify the wording on a reply that issued to a person (details supplied) in County Tipperary who applied for Garda clearance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14726/06]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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The person in question made an application to the Garda data protection processing unit pursuant to section 4 of the Data Protection Act 1988, as amended, for disclosure of her personal data and not a vetting-clearance request. The search proved negative and a standard letter, which has been approved by the Data Protection Commissioner, issued to the applicant. This letter states, inter alia, that the document does not constitute a "proof of no convictions", "police certificate", Garda "reference" or Garda "clearance".

The reason for this is that searches carried out in response to such requests are conducted solely in respect of the name, date of birth and address as provided by the applicant and not on any variants of these details. Unlike criminal record vetting, which is only available to specified organisations, details of possible variant matches are not provided under the data protection search process. This procedure reflects the purpose of data protection legislation, which is not a means of vetting but is designed to protect individuals with regard to the automatic processing of their personal data.