Sir, – In his response to Elaine Edwards's article "Government continues data-sharing projects despite EU ruling" (Technology, December 8th), Robert Watts, the secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, addresses not one of the specific concerns your reporter raised concerning health identifiers, the primary schools online database, public services cards, MyGovID, or the national diabetes register (December 20th).
Suffice it to say that it was not for nothing that Billy Hawkes, in his last annual report as data protection commissioner, remarked in 2014, “Our audits of State organisations have, in too many cases, shown scant regard by senior management to their duty to safeguard the personal data entrusted to them – a duty that is all the greater because of the legal obligation to provide such personal data to the State”. – Yours, etc,
FINTAN SWANTON,
Cygnus Consulting,
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Westport,
Co Mayo.