Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 January 2024
495. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will clarify whether the transfer of data and/or records from his Department that is transferred to other departments, State bodies and local authorities is in aggregated form or on an individual basis; and the reason the data and/or records are provided. [3075/24]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware from PQ 57204/23, the formalisation of data sharing processes was introduced by the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 and supplemented by the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019, with the commencement of sections 6(2) and (3) of that Act coming into operation on 16th December 2022.
My Department and the Offices under its aegis share both aggregated and person-specific data sets with Public Sector Bodies, including other Government Departments and in certain cases with State bodies, agencies, and local authorities. Any data sharing undertaken is in line with the Government’s Data Strategy 2019-2023 and is underpinned by appropriate legislative provisions.
The Department is legally required to share person-specific or personal data in certain situations such as providing taxation data to the Revenue Commissioners, Statistical data to the CSO, or HR related data to the NSSO (National Shared Services Office).
From an administrative perspective, the sharing of data with the referenced entities also facilitates efficiencies for government bodies and customers by not unnecessarily seeking data multiple times from relevant stakeholders. Such personal data sets that are shared are varied in nature depending on the type of services that are being provided to our customers.
Importantly, all the necessary governance arrangements, as underpinned by relevant legislative provisions, are put in place in connection with the sharing of personal data in these circumstances.
My Department operates in line with our legal requirements in this area and adheres to advice provided by the Data Protection Commission in the processing and sharing of personal data
