Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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1719. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the discussions her Department has had with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in relation to the Adoption Authority of Ireland and the access of Tusla to the client identity services of the Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36768/19]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I became aware earlier this year that the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection had notified both Tusla and the AAI that the Client Identity Service (CIS) could no longer assist in processing data for those agencies, in the context of information and tracing, on the basis that there was no statutory basis to do so. I engaged with my colleague, Minister Doherty, in an effort to address these difficulties, and a meeting took place at official level. My understanding of the position of that Department is that the co-operation cannot be re-established until the data sharing in question is underpinned in statute. The Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016 contains provisions to allow the sharing of data of third parties, for the purposes of information and tracing, and the enactment of that Bill will be the solution to the current difficulties.

I am aware of the impact of the cessation of cooperation from the CIS on current information and tracing services. I recognise that compliance with GDPR obligations is the reason that the current service has had to been discontinued, hopefully on a temporary basis, and I look forward to the service resuming when the necessary statutory safeguards are in place.