Latest news with #ReginaDoherty
RTÉ News
3 days ago
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Time is tight for Fine Gael Áras candidate contest
A member of Fine Gael's National Executive has said that while she would like to see a contest for the party's presidential nomination if there was more than one candidate, the time to do so was now "tight". Speaking on RTÉ's This Week programme, Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty said the original timeline was to officially launch their campaign at the beginning of the second week of September, which was drawing near. "Time is of the essence, lots of people are still on their holidays is what maybe makes it a little more will deal with whatever is put in front of us tomorrow evening we will open the contest we will see how many contenders there are and then decisions will be made based on timelines thereafter," she said. The party's national executive council is due to meet tonight to discuss next steps following the withdrawal of Mairead McGuinness earlier this week. "The purpose of the meeting now is to assess where we are as a political party and to make decisions for the days and the weeks ahead in relation to the presidential election," Ms Doherty said. She thanked Ms McGuinness for her service to the party as well as the country and wished her family well. She said that tonight, the national executive will reaffirm the decision made last April to run a candidate. "And for us to set out the process by which that candidate can be nominated and voted upon by the electoral college." Ms Doherty said. She added that timelines will also be decided by the national executive as they are conscious that "the clock is ticking". "We've been planning for this election since April, I think we are one of the first political parties to start our process and obviously, what we thought was finish that process earlier on in the summer, but obviously we will make these decisions tomorrow night based on the current circumstances," she said. She said people were expressing their views but said there was no evidence that camps had begun to form. Ms Doherty stressed that most people were still in shock and had "huge respect and regard for Mairead and her family". "I think most people will be happy to wait for the national executive to meet tomorrow night to see what process is put out in place and then I think you will probably see naturally people will decide to declare who they are supporting or who they think might be a great candidate for us and express their views and opinions both privately and publicly," Ms Doherty said. Ms Doherty refused to speculate about who she wanted to support, adding she would rather attend the meeting tomorrow night and wait for the process to be set out. "We don't have anybody official as of yet," she said. She added that she did not have anyone specific in mind at the moment. Asked about growing support for Heather Humphreys, she said people hold the former Cavan-Monaghan TD in high regard, but added that people like MEP Seán Kelly had a team of supporters championing him at the moment. Ms Humphreys told the Sunday Independent that she is now giving it "very serious consideration". "We are very lucky in the position in Fine Gael that we have more than a number of people who are both affable, amiable, well qualified, you know, politically experienced, so we are in a very, very lucky position, I suppose and we will set that ball rolling again now tomorrow evening. "If there were more than one candidate, she said it was healthy for a party to have a contest and members to decide who they wanted to represent them as a political party. "I'm one of those pragmatic people that likes to see people allowing them to have their say and have their day to make their decisions as opposed to having things pre-orchestrated beforehand," Ms Doherty said. However, Ms Doherty appreciated that a contest could put them under time pressure. "Time is of the essence, lots of people are still on their holidays is what maybe makes it a little more will deal with whatever is put in front of us tomorrow evening we will open the contest we will see how many contenders there are and then decisions will be made based on timelines thereafter," she said. Ms Doherty emphasised that the party would be contesting the presidential election. My great friend and colleague, Heather Humphreys @HHumphreysFG would make a fantastic President. She'll be a strong voice for integrity, vision, and unity in Ireland. If she steps forward, she'll have my full support. — Frances Fitzgerald (@FitzgeraldFrncs) August 17, 2025 MEP Frances Fitzgerald voiced her support for any potential presidential bid by Ms Humphreys. In a post on X, Ms Fitzgerald said Ms Humphreys would make a "fantastic president", adding that she will be a "strong voice for integrity, vision, and unity in Ireland". "If she steps forward, she'll have my full support," Ms Fitzgerald said. Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD Emer Higgins said her party should a run a candidate in the Presidential Election, adding that she hopes it will be Ms Humphreys. Speaking to journalists at the India Day festival in Merrion Square yesterday, Ms Higgins who is Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure said she wants to send her best wishes to Mairead McGuinness who withdrew from the race due to poor health earlier this week. She said while she has not had a chance to talk with colleagues since that news broke, her personal position is that she would be supporting Heather Humphreys. Separately, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Fianna Fáil will be making its position on a candidate clear towards the end of the month. He said the party would be making a "contribution" to the presidential election.
RTÉ News
4 days ago
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Time for Fine Gael Áras candidate contest 'tight'
A member of Fine Gael's National Executive has said that while she would like to see a contest for the party's presidential nomination if there was more than one candidate, the time to do so was now "tight". Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty said the original timeline was to officially launch their campaign at the beginning of the second week of September, which was drawing near. "Time is of the essence, lots of people are still on their holidays is what maybe makes it a little more will deal with whatever is put in front of us tomorrow evening we will open the contest we will see how many contenders there are and then decisions will be made based on timelines thereafter," she said. The party's national executive council is due to meet tomorrow evening to discuss next steps following the withdrawal of Mairead McGuinness earlier this week. "The purpose of the meeting now is to assess where we are as a political party and to make decisions for the days and the weeks ahead in relation to the presidential election," Ms Doherty said. She thanked Ms McGuinness for her service to the party as well as the country and wished her family well. She said that tomorrow night, the national executive will reaffirm the decision made last April to run a candidate. "And for us to set out the process by which that candidate can be nominated and voted upon by the electoral college." Ms Doherty said. She added that timelines will also be decided by the national executive as they are conscious that "the clock is ticking". "We've been planning for this election since April, I think we are one of the first political parties to start our process and obviously, what we thought was finish that process earlier on in the summer, but obviously we will make these decisions tomorrow night based on the current circumstances," she said. She said people were expressing their views but said there was no evidence that camps had begun to form. Ms Doherty stressed that most people were still in shock and had "huge respect and regard for Mairead and her family". "I think most people will be happy to wait for the national executive to meet tomorrow night to see what process is put out in place and then I think you will probably see naturally people will decide to declare who they are supporting or who they think might be a great candidate for us and express their views and opinions both privately and publicly," Ms Doherty said. Ms Doherty refused to speculate about who she wanted to support, adding she would rather attend the meeting tomorrow night and wait for the process to be set out. "We don't have anybody official as of yet," she said. She added that she did not have anyone specific in mind at the moment. Asked about growing support for Heather Humphreys, she said people hold the former Cavan-Monaghan TD in high regard, but added that people like MEP Seán Kelly had a team of supporters championing him at the moment. Ms Humphreys told the Sunday Independent that she is now giving it "very serious consideration". "We are very lucky in the position in Fine Gael that we have more than a number of people who are both affable, amiable, well qualified, you know, politically experienced, so we are in a very, very lucky position, I suppose and we will set that ball rolling again now tomorrow evening. "If there were more than one candidate, she said it was healthy for a party to have a contest and members to decide who they wanted to represent them as a political party. "I'm one of those pragmatic people that likes to see people allowing them to have their say and have their day to make their decisions as opposed to having things pre-orchestrated beforehand," Ms Doherty said. However, Ms Doherty appreciated that a contest could put them under time pressure. "Time is of the essence, lots of people are still on their holidays is what maybe makes it a little more will deal with whatever is put in front of us tomorrow evening we will open the contest we will see how many contenders there are and then decisions will be made based on timelines thereafter," she said. Ms Doherty emphasised that the party would be contesting the presidential election.
BreakingNews.ie
25-06-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Move to ban airlines charging parents extra to sit next to children welcomed
Fine Gael MEP Regina Doherty has welcomed a move by the EU to ban airlines from charging parents extra to sit next to their children who are under the age of 12. Ms Doherty, who is a member of European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, said Irish airlines typically do not charge parents to sit next to their young children. Advertisement However, a number of other European airlines impose a charge in relation to seating of this type. Ms Doherty told Newstalk Breakfast that she had long been 'incensed' by the cash grab of airlines that opt to charge parents additional money to sit next to their children. 'Children under 12 shouldn't be without their parents. Airlines, I felt, were taking advantage of the fact that if they wanted to sit their families together, they had to pay extra charges. 'No more now; the Committee voted yesterday that airlines will not be able to charge families extra for sitting together.' Advertisement Ms Doherty described the charge as an 'abhorrent' practice and said legislation would end it once and for all. On Tuesday the Transport Committee of the EU voted through a series of measures which will increase the rights of passengers. The proposals will be voted on by the European Parliament in the coming weeks. If approved by MEPs, they will then be discussed by the European Council. Ms Doherty said the proposals were met with 'little or no resistance.' 'I think everyone knows this is a commonsense approach,' Ms Doherty said. 'The second thing is, we've seen in recent months a controversy where people were getting charged extra for bags. 'One of the things we voted on yesterday was that people will have a right to have a 7kg carry-on roller bag with them as a right, once it gets through the Parliament.' Ms Doherty added that she expects the changes to happen 'very soon.'
Irish Examiner
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Examiner
Cianan Brennan: Why didn't government admit its error with biometric public services cards?
Six years ago, the Data Protection Commission (DPC) went mano-a-mano with the government of the day over the infamous public services card, and ended up in a long legal war of attrition. That battle involved a simple question: Could the card be used as a catch-all portal for citizens accessing the State's services, regardless of their wishes? That particular spat was more than a little unedifying, ending up in a wholesale climbdown on the part of the Department of Social Protection in December 2021. However, yesterday's decision by the commission to fine the department €550,000 and order it to suspend the biometric processing of the public's data via the card should be even more seismic. €550,000 is five times the amount of the next-largest fine for breach of GDPR by a public body, and more than half of the maximum allowable. Puzzling defence of the indefensible Six years is a long time, however, and the world is a different place now. This time round, the State may be more willing to take its punishment from its own regulator. That in itself would be borderline farcical. The government — former social protection minister Regina Doherty being probably the most noteworthy culprit — argued for years that the card did not carry biometric data, despite it being plainly obvious to anyone with common sense that it did — in this case, a photo used for facial matching. Why did the State spend hundreds of thousands of euro in taxpayers' money defending the indefensible? The answer may be because it couldn't afford not to. Why did it do so? Because it couldn't afford not to. Having stated until it was blue in the face that black was indeed white, to change tack in any way would have been legally disastrous. Why the government of the day couldn't just hold its hands up and admit fault in the first place, rather than spending hundreds of thousands of euro in taxpayers' money defending the indefensible, we may never definitively know. However, we can speculate. The card is deeply ingrained in Irish society now, but that wasn't the case to quite the same extent in 2019. Furthermore, back then GDPR was brand new. It was so new that the initial investigation into the public service card was carried out under Ireland's previous Data Protection Act. Under that act, the commission had far fewer teeth to impose fines. GDPR is now a firmly embedded, if not universally beloved, EU policy. Maybe in 2019 it was felt the time wasn't right for the government to eat crow on its ambitious biometric card venture. Range of views in data protection community Those we polled yesterday across Ireland's niche data protection community had different views as to whether or not the Government, in the guise of the Department of Social Protection, will go the legal route once more. One said: The circumstances have changed. The data protection and GDPR landscape is much clearer now than it was under the old act. 'It seems more likely than not that this is one that won't be challenged, at least not in court.' However, there was little consensus. 'For years, they [the department] have been shouting that there is no biometric data on the card. Now this decision from the regulator is unequivocal that there is. Can they really back down from that? Would that be in character?' a second expert asked. DPC will defend its decision 'very robustly' Should the Government press the nuclear button once more and appeal the decision to the courts, deciding commissioner Dale Sutherland has made it clear that 'we will very robustly defend our decision'. He said: We are well used to this. It is a feature of our system. There are other puzzling aspects to yesterday's decision, not least the sheer length of time it took. The biometrics investigation had been set in train even before the 2019 decision, which dealt specifically with whether or not the government had the right to make the card mandatory for public services such as passport applications, yet it was only officially commenced in July of 2021. It then took four more years to complete, during which time the card has become ever more embedded in Irish society. That is surely an inordinate amount of time to take over a key investigation concerning personal data. 'This was a complex inquiry with complex issues,' Mr Sutherland said. 'The resources these inquiries take are just extraordinary. This one took a bit of time,' he added, while allowing 'it's probably a bit longer than we would have liked'. Digital Rights Ireland, whose initial complaint spurred the investigations back in 2017, professed itself 'concerned' at the length of time it had taken to finalise the probe. A spokesperson added that the decision 'leaves the Government in a very serious situation', given it has spent 'hundreds of millions of euro on an illegal public service card project'. Mr Sutherland stressed, however, that 'the important thing is that it [the investigation] is done now'. Asked whether the world had moved on in the last six years, he said: 'The principles haven't.'
Irish Independent
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
Government fined €550,000 by privacy regulator and warned over facial scans for Public Services Card
The Government department has also been ordered to stop the practice and cease using its biometric database by April of next year, unless it finds a correct legal basis under which to do it. The Department, the regulator said, holds biometric data on at least 70pc of the population here. It has been engaged in the 'ongoing collection, storage and processing of highly sensitive personal data, including biometric data consisting of facial templates, on a large scale', according to the DPC. The Public Services Card has been a privacy battleground between the Government and the regulator for years. While ministers and civil servants insist that it's necessary to bring more efficiency into public services, with facial scans being required to protect against fraud, critics have consistently labelled it an attempt to introduce a national identity card through the back door. In 2017, the then Social Protection Minister, Regina Doherty, infamously described it as being 'not compulsory but mandatory'. In 2021, the Irish privacy regulator began an investigation into what the Department was doing with regard to biometric facial templates and its usage of associated facial matching technologies as part of the registration process for the Public Services Card. The registration process, known as 'SAFE 2 registration', typically involves the submission of a digital photo of someone to make sure they're not already registered or claiming benefits under another identity. Under European GDPR law, biometric data is categorised as 'special category data' to which higher protections and safeguards must be applied. 'SAFE 2 registration is mandatory for anyone who wishes to apply for a Public Services Card,' said the DPC. ADVERTISEMENT 'Persons who do not submit to such processing cannot access DSP services, including welfare payments.' However the Department said it believes there is a legal basis to operate the process, but that the legal provision is 'not in it view, clear and precise enough to satisfy the requirements of the GDPR'. it said that it 'will carefully consider the DPC decision report, in conjunction with colleagues in the Attoreny General's Office with a view to determining an appropriate response within the nine-month timeframe'. It said that depending on the outcome, it may appeal any enforcement notice or work to rectify the issues as perceived by the DPC. The Department said that the DPC 'did not find any evidence of inadequate technical and organisational security measures. "There are no examples of any person suffering damage or loss as a result of SAFE registration.' It insisted that the process has led to a reduction in identity fraud and offered 'security and customer service benefits'. There are no immediate implications for users of the card or MyGov ID, according to the Department, and during the nine-month period the process will continue. The regulator had looked at whether the Department of Social Protection had a 'lawful basis' for collecting and retaining biometric data 'for the purposes of conducting facial matching' as part of this SAFE 2 registration. It also examined the Department had complied with transparency obligations and had carried out an adequate Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) as part of SAFE 2 registration. It found the Department liable on all counts, by 'failing to identify a valid lawful basis for the collection of biometric data in connection with SAFE 2 registration' and, thus, incorrectly 'retaining biometric data collected' as part of the process. The watchdog said that it also 'failed to put in place suitably transparent information' to citizens and failed to include certain details in the DPIA it carried out. 'In light of the infringements identified above, the DPC has reprimanded the DSP, issued administrative fines totalling €550,000 and issued an order to the DSP requiring it to cease processing of biometric data in connection with SAFE 2 registration within nine months of this decision if the DSP cannot identify a valid lawful basis,' said the privacy regulator. However, the regulator did not suggest there was any security risk to the sensitive facial scans stored. 'The DPC did not find any evidence of inadequate technical and organisational security measures deployed by the DSP in connection with SAFE 2 registration in the context of this inquiry,' said Graham Doyle, deputy commissioner of the DPC. 'It is important to note that none of the findings of infringement identified, nor the corrective powers exercised by the DPC, pertain to the rollout of SAFE 2 registration by the DSP as a matter of principle. "This inquiry was concerned with assessing whether the legislative framework presently in place for SAFE 2 registration complies with the requirements of data protection law and whether the DSP operates SAFE 2 registration in a data protection-compliant manner, and the findings announced today identify a number of deficiencies in this regard.'
