Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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26. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the steps being taken to restrict the right to be forgotten under GDPR by convicted sex offenders; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34857/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The General Data Protection Regulation is an EU Regulation, by which Ireland is bound, and the European Court of Justice is responsible for the interpretation of European law, including the GDPR.

The "right to be forgotten" came from a ruling of the Court of Justice and it gives people the right to seek the deletion of their data from a site.

It does not give a guarantee this will be done and the Court of Justice was clear that the right to be forgotten does not apply to information that is relevant to the public interest, including previous convictions for sexual crimes.

I want to be very clear here in saying that the GDPR does not give convicted sex offenders any automatic right to have their previous convictions deleted from search engines.

While it is not open to me, as Minister for Justice, to change the application or interpretation of the GDPR, I can assure the Deputy that I am determined keep our communities safe.

To this end, last year I enacted legislation to strengthen our already robust system for monitoring sex offenders. The Sex Offenders (Amendment) Act 2023 has reduced, from 7 to 3 days, the period for sex-offenders to inform Gardaí of any change in their circumstance – including their name, address, if they are leaving the country or staying somewhere other their registered address.

It has also given additional powers to An Garda Síochána to take photographs, fingerprints and palm prints from a convicted sex offender and has given Gardaí the power to disclose information regarding a convicted sex offender to a third party in certain circumstances.

The 2023 Act also provides for the court to prohibit a sex offender from working with children or vulnerable people and provides for the electronic tagging of offenders.