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GAZETTE
APRIL 1 9 89
wholly or mainly in direct marketing
or direct mailing, providing credit
references or collecting debts, as
well as any other data controllers
who keep "sensitive" personal
data, that is, data relating to racial
origin, political opinions, religious or
other beliefs, physical or mental
health, sexual life or criminal
convictions.
If the only kind of sensitive
personal health data kept by a data
controller is health data kept in the
ordinary course of personnel
administration and not used for any
other purpose, then he does not
have to register - unless of course
he comes under one of the other
categories that have to do so. This
exemption from registration,
therefore, will not apply if, for
example, a data controller has to
register by virtue of being a public
sector body required to do so.
Data processors whose business
consists wholly or partly in
processing personal data on behalf
of data controllers also have to
register.
Registration began on 9 January
and will continue up to 19 April
1989, when the remaining pro-
visions of the Act, with one or two
exceptions, will come into force.
Thereafter, any registrable person
who has not registered will commit
an offence while those who have
registered will commit an offence
if they knowingly deal with data
otherwise than as indicated in their
registered entry. Registration is
subject to an annual fee of £100.
Data controllers most likely to
keep personal data relating to
physical or mental health will
include hospitals, nursing homes,
clinics, doctors, dentists, phar-
macists and insurance companies.
Schools, colleges, educational
establishments,
barristers
and
solicitors may a/so have to register
by virtue
of their
keeping
"sensitive" personal information,
as
defined above, on computer.
Enforcement of the Act is the
responsibility, in the first instance,
of the Commissioner, who is ap-
pointed by the Government and is
independent in the exercise of his
functions. Appeals against his
decisions lie to the Circuit Court.
He is required to investigate
complaints that the data protection
provisions have been contravened
and may do so also on his own
initiative. If he is satisfied that a
breach has occurred he can issue
an "enforcement notice" on the
data controller or data processor
concerned indicating what must be
done to comply with the Act. A
refusal or failure to comply with
such a notice, without reasonable
excgse, is an offence.
The Commissioner can prohibit
the transfer of personal data
outside the jurisdiction in certain
cases. He does this through the
issue of a "prohibition notice". The
provisions in the Act relating to the
transfer of data correspond to
those in Article 12 of the
Convention. When applying them,
the Commissioner must balance
the interest of privacy against the
desirability of facilitating inter-
national transfers of data. Failure to
comply with a prohibition notice
without reasonable excuse is also
an offence.
The Data Protection Act creates
a new branch of the law having its
own particular concepts and terms.
As stated, it will come into
operation on 19 April 1989. To
assist those affected by it a Guide
to the Act, registration forms and
guidance notes on how to
complete them are available, on
request, from the Office of the
Commissioner, 74 St. Stephen's
Green, Dublin 2. Tel. 01-789304.
It is to be hoped that all those
immediately involved with imple-
menting the Act and its require-
ments will co-operate to make it a
success. It is the first privacy
legislation to have been enacted by
the Oireachtas and the advantages
that can stem from it for data
subjects, data controllers and data
processors are considerable, both
on the domestic and on the
international plane. On the
domestic plane, it establishes new
individual rights and introduces
new standards of data protection
that will make for increased
efficiency and cost saving in the
management of computer systems,
while on the international plane it
has placed this country in the
forefront of modern data protection
legislation, a factor that can only
benefit our international trade and
business life, particularly in the
information market.
•
FORENSIC
F A B L E S
by
o
THE GREAT LAWYER WHO TOLD HIS
AUDIENCE HOW TO DO IT
A
G R E AT Lawyer Once Attended a Banquet.
He was the Principal Guest. The Great
Lawyer's Hosts were Budding Members of the
Bar who had Formed a Debating Society. They
Desired to Pay Honour where Honour was Due and
to Learn from One who had Arrived at the Top how
the Trick was to be Done. The Great Lawyer, when
Responding to the Toast of the Evening, Told them
All About It. Individual Effort and Concentration,
said the Great Lawyer, were the Only Things that
Counted. There were Some, he Believed, who
Thought that Luck was an Important Factor in Life.
They were Wrong. He who Wished to Succeed must
Work—Work—Work. He must Rise Early and
Map Out his Day. He must be an Athlete in Strict
Training. He must be a Sentry at his Post, Morning,
Noon and Night. He must Serve One Master, and
One Master Only—his Profession. The Great
Lawyer Reminded them of the Emperor Napoleon's
Observations on the Subject of Knapsacks and
Batons, and Assured them that, if Only they would
Fight the Good Fight, Each One of them might be a
Marshal in the Army of the Law. And in a Moving
Peroration the Great Lawyer Attributed his Own
Success in Life to a Strict Adherence to the Maxims
he was Expounding. In Point of Fact, the Great
I.awver had been Spoon-Fed by a Near Relative from
the Day of his Call; he had Always Taken Things
Easily and Done himself Well; he had made a
Matrimonial Alliance which Furnished him with
Abundant Cash; a Series of Unexpected Political
Events had Floated him into a Government; and the
Sudden Demise of an Important Personage on the
Eve of his Party's Defeat at the Polls had Provided
him with the Fat Job which he now Enjoyed. When
the Great Lawyer Resumed his seat after Speaking for
Forty-Five Minutes, his Innocent Hosts Cheered him
to the Echo, and Went Home Grimly Determined to
Follow in the Great Lawyer's Footsteps.
Moral.—w
the Right Thing.
Reproduced with the permission of
Butterworth Law Publishers Ltd. from
Forensic Fables by O:
complete edition
available from Butterworth (Ireland) Ltd.,
9 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2.
9 0