Genealogists have raised concerns about moves to resurrect the Privacy Bill 2006 in the Irish Seanad, the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish parliament). The genealogists say the proposed legislation could restrict access to records for genealogical or biographical research.
Those in charge of such records could “arbitrarily and unnecessarily restrict or deny access” to vital records on the grounds that access could infringe privacy rights under the Bill. It is also possible, “through fear of litigation”, the legislation could hamper the publication of biographies, especially if such publications contained data obtained from public registers.
You can read the Privacy Bill at http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2006/4406/b4406s.pdf as it was restored to the Order Paper of Seanad Éireann on September 25th 2012 by the Leader of the Senate, Senator Maurice Cummins - see:- http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/op/Sep12/Seanad/op250912s.pdf - no. 9 on the Order Paper.
My thanks to newsletter reader Michael Merrigan for telling me about this proposed legislation.
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