I would ask for the Members' co-operation, with contributions of up to one minute.

In 2021, a whistleblower revealed that the Department of Health was holding secret dossiers containing information on children with autism whose families were taking legal action against the State to ensure that the children's rights were upheld. On the other side of these challenges was the Department. When the scandal broke, it was claimed that there was nothing untoward in the Department's actions. We now know that is not the case. The Data Protection Commission, DPC, has found that the State was engaged in unlawful practice against vulnerable people. At the centre of all of this are vulnerable children and their families. In the words of one of them who has spoken to RTÉ, "What was done was completely and awfully wrong. ... I'm going to distrust the government for the rest of my life because of what has been done to me." His mother went to say, "I never got an apology. ... nobody else got an apology. Nobody got an apology." Given the unlawful actions that were going on within the Department, in some cases involving files being kept for as long as 20 years, the least I am sure the Tánaiste can do on behalf of the Government is apologise on behalf of the Government to each and every one of these children. Will the Tánaiste make that apology to them today?

First of all, I have not had time yet to go through the full report of the DPC. However, the DPC contacted the Department of Health in March 2021 following the airing of the "RTÉ Investigates" programme to notify the Department that the DPC was commencing an investigation on foot of the allegations regarding data processing raised in the programme. I am informed that the DPC did not find evidence on the 29 litigation files examined that the Department had proactively sought information from other Departments or co-defendants other than the HSE, as was claimed at the time. The DPC also did not find an infringement of data protection law arising from the fact that the Department stored this information for the purposes of defending litigation. The files relate to active litigation and the DPC recognised that there are a number of obligations that require defendants to retain documents that relate to open litigation.

I thank the Tánaiste.

I will examine this fully and more comprehensively.

Is the Government's position that the Department did not break the law?

This was the Department's position.

That is shocking. There is clarification required. Is the Government's position that the Department did not break the law because, obviously, the Minister has decided not to apologise on this occasion? I would like clarification.

The time is running. There are different ways to get clarification. I call Deputy Bacik.