Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 October 2021
131. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the advice he sought from persons and bodies with expertise in GDPR concerning subject access requests by survivors seeking personal information from the archive of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48686/21]
View answerIn order to assist the processing of subject access requests from individuals seeking personal information from the archive and to vindicate the rights of data subjects, my Department has put in place a multi-disciplinary team which includes legal and data protection expertise. Officials in my Department who process SARs from individuals completed data protection training delivered by external consultants to ensure that they are appropriately equipped to respond to requests in respect of the archive. My Department has sought and obtained legal advice from the Office of the Attorney General on a range of issues relating to subject access requests by survivors seeking personal information from the archive of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.
In addition, my Department has engaged external data protection consultants to support the processing of requests from data subjects and, in consultation with the Attorney General, has developed guidelines which set out the steps that must be taken in response to each subject access request.
