Bernard Allen
Ceist:474 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps, if any, he will take to protect personal health data from being abused; and the discussions, if any, he has had with the European Commission to put in place measures which would protect personal health data from being abused particularly in view of the 1998 annual report of the Data Protection Commissioner which stated that data sharing and data mining techniques, which are used to build up a detailed personal profile, challenge the very heart of the privacy concept. [1854/00]