Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
353. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to clarify the circumstances in which it is appropriate for public sector bodies to store or process citizen data in cloud services provided by commercial operators, as opposed to a private Government cloud; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36216/23]
View answerThank you Deputy for this question. As I mentioned in my reply to your recent question about cloud computing, the Cloud Computing Advice Note issued by my Department, provides high-level guidance to assist Public Service Bodies in making decisions in relation to the adoption of cloud services.
In all cases, a move to cloud, whether commercial, government, or hybrid, will be a business decision made by individual Public Service Bodies on the basis of specific considerations. Public Service Bodies should and will take a range of factors into account such as the risk profile of the data, where it resides, and other such issues, which may determine that use of private government cloud is most appropriate for particular circumstances.
Public Service Bodies remain fully responsible regarding their regulatory obligations including data protection. In that regard, Public Service Bodies can also refer to the Data Protection Commission’s publication Guidance for Organisations Engaging Cloud Service Providers .
