It is startling the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic has changed the ground rules for business, writes Brian Keegan.

Nobody has been sanctioned in Tusla for serious data breaches being investigated by the Data Protection Commissioner, it has emerged.

Liam Herrick lists eight stumbling blocks to ensuring human rights and equal treatment can become a reality here and how they can be easily fixed

Internal departmental records show how it expected to go up to €60m over budget in 2019 because of the rise in applications for international protection.

Regina Doherty said that the appeal is necessary as “the cost of not appealing would be absolutely enormous to the State, and not just in terms of finances”.

The minister with responsibility for the controversial Public Services Card has said her Department’s appeal of an enforcement notice will “hopefully” be completed by March.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has officially appealed the enforcement notice served upon it regarding the Public Services Card by the Data Protection Commissioner.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs was advised by a data protection consultancy not to use the Public Services Card as a mandatory requirement for accessing the new National Childcare Scheme as to do so would risk breaching the constitutional rights of children.

It’s hard to escape the feeling that Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty’s appearance before her own Oireachtas committee yesterday was anything but an embarrassing car crash for her personally.

The Department of Social Protection could be in breach of European law for retaining the historical data of 3.2m holders of the public service card (PSC) in an attempt to stop future welfare fraud.

A stormy meeting on the controversial Public Services Card this morning saw Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty say her department would take their objection to accusations of illegality levelled at the card “as far as it takes to vindicate our position”.

A languages teacher in rural Ireland broke her ankle but was denied welfare benefit by the Department of Social Protection because she refused to get a public services card (PSC).

His department had previously released figures including the individual payments to barristers acting on its behalf in the Apple case, but stopped after the introduction of new European data rules, known as GDPR.

“I’m advised that we are operating within the law, I believe we are operating within the law.”

The Dail's Spending watchdog has blasted the Department of Finance's use of GDPR rules not to publish payments to lawyers acting on its behalf in the €14bn Apple appeal.

This administration, albeit in an earlier iteration, promised that openness, that active accountability would become a characteristic of our public life.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs was ordered to make the public services card (PSC) the only way for people to access the new National Childcare Scheme as it did “not make sense” for the department to be allowed to develop its own application system.

The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee has criticised one of the country’s most senior civil servants for making “zero effort to answer the questions” posed by the committee regarding the Public Services Card.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection did not share the interim adversarial findings of the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) regarding the Public Services Card (PSC) with any affected bodies apart from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. This was despite being specifically asked and in a position to do so.

One of the country’s top civil servants has defended the public services card (PSC), saying the “value” of the project is “often misunderstood”.

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) is facing a possible investigation and potential €1m fines over the mandatory requirement to hold a public services card in order to access the new National Childcare Scheme.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection cannot say how much the 10-year Public Services Card project has cost to date.

An alternative method for applying for the new National Childcare Scheme online, other than the public services card, was dramatically dropped on the advice of a State body with responsibility for the card’s expansion in January 2018.

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection was registering entire private companies for the Public Services Card despite an ongoing investigation into the project by the Data Protection Commissioner.

The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection has been called upon to release the legal advice she received on the Public Services Card at a stormy Dáil session this evening.

The Government is goading the Data Protection Commissioner into taking it to court, mostly as a delaying tactic, says Michael Clifford

The Passport Office will no longer require a person to have a Public Services Card to acquire a passport, the Irish Examiner can reveal.

A €9.4 million project to develop the second generation of the controversial Public Services Card is set for completion in January of next year, it has been confirmed.

An Post says it has contacted the Data Protection Commissioner following a breach involving 250 of its customers in Cork.

Fianna Fáil has ramped up the pressure on Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty to publish the Data Protection Commissioner’s highly adversarial report on the Public Services Card.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin shrugs at the idea that he may someday be offered the role of Tánaiste, but his party could be the linchpin in any new coalition if there is a snap election here.

By their actions shall we know them. The handling by the Government of the public service card (PSC) saga speaks volumes for how it governs.

The Department of Social Protection’s rejection of the recent highly critical findings of the Data Protection Commissioner regarding the Public Services Card has been struck a perhaps fatal blow with the news that the Commissioner will not be engaging further with them.

Questioning the Data Protection Commissioner’s judgment gives lie to the contempt with which the State holds privacy rights and the office itself, writes Cianan Brennan

Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty has said that based on their own legal advice, her department does not accept the findings of the Data Protection Commissioner in relation to the Public Services Card.

The Government’s decision to challenge the Data Protection Commissioner’s highly adversarial rulings on the Public Services Card has been condemned as “ludicrous” and “incredibly bizarre”.

The Public Services Card (PSC) will be the only way by which parents can access the new National Childcare Scheme when it goes live in October, despite a ruling from the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) that the card is unlawful when applied to State services other than welfare.