Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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148. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will clarify whether the transfer of data and/or records from his 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. [3080/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the sharing of data is covered by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019 with the commencement of final sections of that Act coming into effect in December last year.

My Department shares data sets with other public bodies only where there is an explicit need for such sharing in order to carry out the performance of our functions. Due to the nature of such functions performed by this Department the vast majority of data used and transferred/shared is in aggregated form. Occasionally data sets based on individual records are used/shared and this is fully aligned with our stated functions such as payment of grants as well as with all relevant legislation concerning data protection.

My Department has an effective corporate governance framework in place to ensure that we meet our obligations under data protection laws. This includes having a Data Protection Officer and Data Officer in place to oversee compliance with data protection and data sharing obligations.