Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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116. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 55 of 14 May 2025, the reason the number of unauthorised or unlawful destructions of personal data by the Revenue Commissioners for each year from 2013 to 2024, in breach of the National Archives Act 1986 and data protection legislation, is not available; if he will confirm whether the number of such destructions exceeded 10 million; the date by which he expects to provide the relevant figures to the House; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27751/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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117. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 56 of 14 May 2025, if he will provide the number of phone call recordings destroyed by the Revenue Commissioners for each year since 2018 without the certified authorisation required under section 7 of the National Archives Act 1986; if he will confirm whether the number of such destructions exceeded 10 million; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27752/25]

Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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118. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 56 of 14 May 2025, if he will confirm whether the pre-recorded message on the Revenue Commissioners’ local property tax helpline in 2024 stated that calls would be recorded and may be used for verification purposes by callers; if he will explain the reason such recordings were deleted six months later, despite the expectation given to callers that the recordings would be available in the event of a dispute; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27753/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 116, 117 and 118 together.

I am advised by Revenue that the disposal of call recording records in accordance with the “Schedule of Records” and “Records Retention and Disposal Policy” published on Revenue.ie is not considered a personal data breach for the purposes of Article 4 (12) of the General Data Protection Regulation.

The retention period is set having regard to the data protection principles (Article 5 GDPR) of storage limitation, data minimisation and proportionality. The retention period for call recordings is 6-12 months as stated in Revenue’s record retention schedule published on revenue.ie at  www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/records-retention-schedule.pdf (page 40).

Recording of calls are deleted thereafter. There is currently no disposal order from the National Archives covering call recordings. I am further advised by Revenue that they are engaging with the National Archives in respect of obtaining a disposal order for such records.

The table below provides details on the volume of calls received by Revenue’s telephone services and then deleted after the 6–12-month retention period. The total exceeds 10 million calls over the 7-year period.