Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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512. To ask the Minister for Health if he will outline the specific data protection issues that have been considered in implementing the e-health strategy; if he is of the view that data protection laws are sufficient to facilitate the implementation of the strategy; if he has sought to have amendments made to data protection laws to fully realise the potential of the strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29892/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Government published its plans for adopting a digital approach for health in its eHealth Strategy for Ireland in December 2013. Since that time, considerable progress in promoting the eHealth agenda has taken place including increased funding for ICT and the recruitment of a Chief Information Officer for the health services for the first time ever. This was done in order to pursue the implementation of the eHealth strategy. This is a welcome.

The Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 recognises the special significance of health information and the need for personal health data to have special measures applied to it to ensure that the privacy and confidentially of sensitive personal data is accorded the highest protection possible and this is more necessary than ever in the context of the emerging era of digital health care. The Deputy will also be aware of the a new EU regulatory mechanism for processing personal data including a new General Data Protection Regulation that is currently being finalised in discussions between the Member States, EU Parliament and the EU Commission. This regulatory mechanism will, hopefully, bring greater consistency throughout Europe on how personal information, including sensitive personal information, is managed and empowering patients to manage their own health data. The eHealth agenda will be required to work in harmony with data protection arrangements emerging over the next few years. It is recognised that a number of challenges exists in developing a digital approach to health and that the legal and regulatory framework for health information will require changes in legislation and governance of how data are managed in our health system. In this regard, I would draw the Deputy's attention to the recent Health Identifiers Act 2014 which provides for the assignment of unique identifiers to patients and to healthcare providers (both professionals and organisations) to ensure that patients safety and confidentiality are maintained to highest degree possible. The Health Identifiers Act also allows for significant penalties to be applied in the case of breaches of the Act by misuse or inappropriate access to the register of individual health identifiers. The application of this Act will apply across the public and private health system to the benefit of patients.

In addition, I am proposing to bring the General Scheme of the Health Information Bill to government very shortly. That Bill will address a number of information issues relevant to a modern information driven health service. Both of these measures significantly strengthen the information governance framework surrounding the management and use of health information while facilitating the development of new information systems to bring more efficiency to health care delivery and empowering patients to manage their own health data. The legislative measures have been developed in consultation with a range of stakeholders including the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and the Health Information and Quality Authority.

eHealth is a program of discreet but connected projects. All future eHealth projects, which have the potential to impact personal information, will be subject to a Privacy Impact Assessment in line with Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) guidelines.