So, Phil Hogan believes that the vast majority of people in Ireland want to be compliant with legislation, specifically the Household Charge. Perhaps a first step to ensuring that compliance would be for the Minister to ensure that the Household Charge is being implemented in a manner that is compliant with the Data Protection Acts. That would have meant
- Early consultation with the Data Protection Commissioner to identify and mitigate Data Protection risks in the Household Charge legislation
- Early consultation with the Data Protection Commissioner to ensure that appropriate mechanisms for data sharing were given effective legislative support within the Household Charge legislation
- Ensuring clarity about the current and proposed future uses for the (significant) amount of data which is being gathered as part of the registration process
- Ensuring that the use of PPS Numbers as part of the registration process was clearly and demonstrably being approached in a manner that complies with the requirements of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005
- Ensuring clarity about who the Data Controller is for the Household Charge scheme (it appears to be de facto the Department at this point, despite the text on the Privacy Statement on their website).
- Communicating early and often with the public about the charge, its legal basis, the purposes to which data that is being collected will be put to etc. etc.
Instead we have a Minister announcing on national radio that the Government is backing him in reviewing all relevant legislation, including the Data Protection Acts, to allow the Household Charge to be collected. Thankfully the Data Protection Commissioner’s rebuttal of that utter nonsense has been getting more air time since, but I thought it might be worth a quick examination of why the Minister’s comments were total poppycock.