I propose to take Questions Nos. 603 and 604 together.
The Department had an arrangement with pension companies where a person's pension had matured and the company had been unable to contact the person.
The pension company provided a letter with the person's details and where the Department held a more recent address, the letter was forwarded on to the person at that address. This enabled the person concerned to contact the pension administrator if they so wished. The Department did not provide any information to the pension administrator.
As persons contacted in this way would have made contact with the pension companies themselves and not with the Department, it is not possible to state how many persons benefited from this.
The Department has suspended the provision of this service pending the receipt of legal advice on the application of the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation. I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.