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DEAR SIR: I refer to Dermot Houlihan’s letter, ‘‘Questions about the Integrity of the Forestry Knowledge Transfer Group (KTG) scheme’’ in the Irish Farmers Journal on 1 September 2018.
Houlihan states: ‘‘The governance of producer groups in this era of heightened data sensitivity with the new GPDR regulations lacks clarity. The Forest Service and Teagasc transferring forest owners’ sensitive data to these unvetted groups who seek to vet others seems unwise and foolhardy and we object strongly to it.’’ This is a very serious comment and completely incorrect.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine takes its data protection responsibilities extremely seriously.
For all schemes operated by the Department, personal data is only used for specific purpose(s), as outlined when the data is collected and will only be used in accordance with the data protection legislation in force.
The Department is fully committed to keeping all personal data submitted by its customers safe and secure.
Forest owners wishing to take part in the Forestry KTG scheme complete application forms, which includes standard personal information, (name, address, date of birth, etc) and information on their forests. It is the forest owners themselves who transfer the information to the KTG organisers, which is clearly not as Houlihan suggests. This ensures that the KT groups can operate as effectively as they possibly can by using the supplied information to determine the agenda for KTG meetings and that topics covered are relevant to those attending.
Finally, I am pleased to note the significant interest in the Forestry KTG scheme, with a number of applications already received ahead of the closing date on 14 September 2018 and I would encourage other forestry owners to consider joining.
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