Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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458. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she will clarify whether the transfer of data and/or records from her Department that is transferred to other departments, State bodies and local authorities is in aggregated form or on an individual basis; and the reason the data and/or records are provided. [3086/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As I set out in my reply to the Deputy's question on January 17th, my Department has a very wide range of functions, and data may be legally shared with various public bodies for operational reasons. This data sharing can involve aggregated and/or individual-level information.

Aggregated data is transferred by my Department for statistical and research purposes. This anonymous statistical data cannot be used to identify individuals, and therefore is not personal or person-specific data. Transfers of statistical aggregated datasets to the Central Statistics Office and Eurostat are ongoing.

Personal data is only shared by my Department at an individual level where there is legitimate reason to do so, a valid lawful basis and in strict accordance with Data Protection principles.

I hope the Deputy will appreciate that given the volume of data shared by the Department it is not possible to provide details on a case-by-case basis, but data shared with Government Departments, Agencies and other bodies/offices may be aggregated or person-specific depending on the purpose of data being requested by the recipient and the legal basis for sharing.