Data Protection

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 November 2015

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Ceisteanna (70)

Catherine Murphy

Ceist:

70. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Finance if he will indicate, in tabular form, all instances from 1 January 2000 to 2015 to date where legislation introduced by him or on his behalf, which is enacted and still in force, contains a provision amending the Data Protection Acts to allow for the transfer of personal or other data collected, retained and processed by the State for a particular purpose towards another specific purpose; if he will indicate for each such case the financial cost of creating and administering such databases; the projected financial cost for databases not yet complete; the specific legislative provision which enabled such data transfers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41137/15]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Finance

In the period referred to by the Deputy, there has been no legislation introduced by the Minister for Finance which contains a provision amending the Data Protection Acts. However, examples of legislation which affect the operation of the Data Protection Acts is set out below.

It should be noted that the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 do not operate to prevent the disclosure of personal data in certain cases, including where the disclosure is required by or under any enactment or by a rule of law or order of a court, as set out in Section 8 of the 1988 Act, as amended. In those circumstances personal data can be disclosed without requiring any amendment of the Data Protection Acts.

Legislation	Relevant provisions
Customs and Excise (Mutual Assistance) Act, 2001 Customs and Excise (Mutual Assistance) Act 2001 (Section 8) (Protection of Manual Data) Regulations 2004	The Customs and Excise (Mutual Assistance) Act, 2001 give force of law in the State to the CIS Convention, the 1996 Protocol, the 1999 Protocol and the Customs Co-operation Convention which provide for the mutual assistance and co-operation between Member State customs' administrations. Section 5(1) of the Act applies the protection of the Data Protection Act to any personal data collected, processed, kept, used or disclosed that is included in or received from the Customs Information System under the CIS Convention. SI 254/2004, the Customs and Excise (Mutual Assistance) Act 2001 (Section 8) (Protection of Manual Data) Regulations 2004 extend the protection of the Data Protection Acts to manual data created prior to the Data Protection (Amendment) Act, 2003 that is processed under the 2001 Act.
Credit Reporting Act 2013	Section 19 provides for the Data Protection Act to have effect as if- Personal data included relevant credit data (information held on the Central Credit Register which relates to a person to with annual turnover of not more than €3,000,000, if it were information relating to a living individual, would be personal data for the purposes of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003), and a person with an annual turnover of not more than €3,000,000 was a living individual.