Ciarán Cuffe
Question:174 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if the fingerprints of asylum seekers from the ten accession States have been destroyed or removed from EURODAC. [25879/04]
View answerThursday, 21 October 2004
Questions (174)
Written answers
The regulation referred to by the Deputy is Council Regulation No. 2725/200 of 11 December 2000, concerning the establishment of EURODAC for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of the Dublin Convention. Article 2 of the regulation provides that the European Commission shall be responsible for operating the central database on behalf of the member states. Article 6 of the regulation provides that "each set of data . . . shall be stored in the central database for ten years from the date on which the fingerprints are taken". It is also provided that upon expiry of this period, the central unit shall automatically erase the data from the central database. However, Article 7 indicates that data relating to a person "who has acquired citizenship of any Member State before expiry of the period referred to in Article 6 shall be erased from the database . . . as soon as the Member State of origin becomes aware that the person has acquired such citizenship." I have asked that the European Commission be requested to explore the implications of Article 7 of the regulation in light of the accession to the EU of ten new member states.