Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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200. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the State has been involved, either directly or indirectly, in data mining; if the State plans to package and sell data once the Data Protection Bill 2018 has commenced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9862/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Analysis of data is a component element of public policy development and evaluation and State organisations use different analysis methods to achieve this. These analyses are carried out in line with all relevant legislation including that relating to Data Protection.

While certain data held by the State is made available commercially, over 5,000 data sets are freely available on the Open Data portal data.gov.ie. This is in line with The Open Data Strategy 2017-2022, which was published last year. Two core objectives of the Strategy include the publication of high value government data in open format, making it publicly available and freely reusable; and engaging with a broad community of stakeholders to promote its social and economic benefits.

In relation to my own Department, there are no plans to package and sell data.