Bernard Allen (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 104: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he consulted the Data Protection Commissioner and if he expressed concerns to his Department officials before the publication by his Department of the recipients of CAP payments; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the Minister for Agriculture in Germany has postponed publication due to data protection concerns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20149/09]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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It is a requirement of the EU regulations governing the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy, which are applicable in all Member States, that details of payments to beneficiaries are published. Ireland is expected to receive transfers of EU funding of more than €11 billion between 2007 and 2013 through CAP payments. The requirement to publish originated in the European Transparency Initiative which is intended to increase transparency and accountability and is based on the principle that taxpayers and citizens have a legitimate interest in seeing how their taxes are spent.

I can confirm that officials in my Department consulted with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner in Ireland in the context of finalising the administrative arrangements for publication of this data. I can also confirm that the EU Data Protection Commissioner was consulted by the Commission during the negotiations on the EU Regulations governing publication to ensure compatibility with European Data Protection Legislation. In both cases, the advice received was that publication does not constitute a breach of data protection rights.

The CAP beneficiary data was not published in Germany by the 30 April deadline following a Court ruling in that country. However, I understand that the German authorities have recently indicated to the EU Commission that the details will be published in June.