Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 April 2023
440. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform if providing advice and a set of best practice guidelines on data protection be part of the role of the Govtech Delivery Board, given that, in the 2019 Cruinniú report that proposed the Govtech body, the lack of expertise on GDPR in public sector bodies was identified as a barrier to deployment of new technologies. [16426/23]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, the report of Cruinniú GovTech 2019 represents the views of those who attended that Cruinniú. Since then my colleague, the previous Minister for Public Expenditure National Development Plan Delivery and Reform established the Data Governance Board, under the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019. The Board leads on setting and overseeing best practice in data sharing and utilisation across government, including adherence to the Data Protection Act and GDPR.
The Board is independent in the performance of its functions with support provided by the Data Governance Unit in the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. The Board’s clearly defined set of legal powers and obligations under the Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019 include:
• advising me on the introduction of data management standards and guidelines;
• promoting and reporting on compliance with standards and guidelines;
• advising me on the prohibition of collection of certain data by public bodies;
• advising me on directing public bodies to share data under the Act;
• advising me on the designation and operation of base registries;
• reviewing all data sharing agreements under the Act.
The Data Governance Board is chaired by the Government Chief Information Officer, and details of its current membership are available on the State Boards website.
