John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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199. To ask the Minister for Finance if he or his Department have given an exemption to the data protection laws to a business (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56195/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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First, neither I nor the Central Bank of Ireland has a role in providing exemptions to data protection legislation. The application of the data protection legislative framework is a matter for the Data Protection Commission.

As the Deputy is aware, KBC and Bank of Ireland have entered an agreement where Bank of Ireland would acquire the majority of KBC Bank Ireland’s loan assets and deposits. While it is regrettable that KBC has decided to leave the market, this is a commercial decision for the board and management of the bank. What is important now is that the withdrawal takes place in an orderly manner.

In August, KBC began writing to customers to advise them that as part of the transfer to Bank of Ireland, it will transfer certain Personal Data (such as name, date of birth, address, product details, financial information, etc) to Bank of Ireland, to allow Bank of Ireland to contact new customers in advance of the transfer and to test and prepare its systems and operations to ensure that all account(s) operate correctly upon transfer.

KBC and Bank of Ireland have each undertaken that the data transfer will take place in compliance with all applicable data protection legislation.

Further information on the data transfer and the safeguards which the parties have put in place is available on both the websites of KBC and Bank of Ireland.