Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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671. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the annual budget and resources allocated to the Hickson commission of investigation since its establishment in 2018, in tabular form. [11484/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that the Hickson Commission is tasked with the investigation of the extent to which a number of organisations, including State bodies and individuals, were aware of the activities of Bill Kenneally and whether they failed to take appropriate action.

Retired Judge Mr Justice Barry Hickson is the sole member of the Commission. He is supported by two senior and two junior counsel, as well as documentary counsel. A solicitor from the Chief State Solicitors Office has been seconded to work with the Commission. In addition, a clerical officer has been assigned to the Commission

The table below outlines the annual budget allocated to the Hickson Commission.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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672. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the work undertaken by the Hickson commission of investigation to date since the formal commencement of the work on 1 November 2018. [11485/21]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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675. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when she expects the Hickson commission of investigation to conclude its work. [11489/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 672 and 675 together.

The Deputy will be aware that the Hickson Commission is tasked with the investigation of the extent to which a number of organisations, including State bodies, and individuals were aware of the activities of Bill Kenneally and whether they failed to take appropriate action.

The work of the Commission is at an investigative phase. The Commission held an opening hearing in November 2019 which was attended by some of the survivors with their legal advisers and also had representatives of An Garda Síochána, the HSE, Tusla and Basketball Ireland.

During 2019 and 2020, the Commission’s legal team attended a number of locations on a number of occasions to interview relevant parties. The Commission’s legal team continues to contact relevant parties and interview witnesses. The Commission has received and reviewed a large volume of disclosure. It has also sought, on an ongoing basis, submissions from interested parties (having regard to its terms of reference) in relation to its ongoing work, including in relation to the scope for and conduct of physical hearings under the current public health restrictions.

Once the Commission is in a position to proceed with hearings in relation to all of the evidence before it, it is anticipated that it could conclude its work and issue a report within 8-12 months.

The Commission has at all times had, and will continue to have, due regard to its terms of reference.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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673. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the dates on which her Department received correspondence from the Hickson commission of investigation in tabular form. [11486/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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It has not been possible to collate the information requested by the Deputy within the time allowed. I will write to the Deputy to provide this information as soon as it is available.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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674. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if, further to her Department’s loss of a USB stick containing personal data relating to the Hickson commission of investigation, she has met the persons whose personal data were on the USB stick; and if she has provided them with the details of their information contained on the lost item. [11488/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Hickson Commission is an independent body and I, as Minister for Justice, have no role in the conduct of its investigation.

I am informed by my officials that, in May 2019, having been made aware of the loss of the USB stick containing personal data in relation to the Hickson Commission, my Department notified the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), as required under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. I am further informed that the Data Protection Officer in my Department investigated the circumstances surrounding the missing USB stick and the outcome of that investigation was subsequently notified to the ODPC.

The investigation found that:

- Despite a thorough search of both premises the missing USB stick was not located.

- An Post indicated that no USB stick was identified in their Recovery/Reclaim Unit.

- The USB stick in question was an INTEGREL Courier USB key with hardware encryption. The encryption used with this device is AES 256-bit, which is ISO27001 compliant.

- The data contained on the USB stick had been uploaded to the Commission’s secure system prior to the stick being mislaid.

As the data contained on the USB stick continued to be available to the Commission and the missing USB stick was encrypted to industry standard, the risk to individuals whose personal data was on the USB stick was evaluated, as required by data protection legislation, and found to be low. Any third party finding the USB stick would be unable to access any information contained therein. In circumstances where the USB stick’s technical protection measures (i.e. encryption) rendered the data unintelligible, there was no reason to notify the data subjects. I understand that the details of the investigation were notified to the DPC and that, in mid-June 2019, the ODPC notified my Department that the breach was closed.

I regret the upset and anger caused by the breach and in particular I regret that those concerned found out about it through the media. To avoid this occurring and as a courtesy, those concerned should have been notified of the data breach at the time that it occurred. I have written to them to express my regret about what happened. I am continuing to liaise with the legal representatives of the persons concerned to arrange a meeting in the near future.