8.— (1) The Health Service Executive may request—

(a) the Minister for Social Protection, or

(b) the Revenue Commissioners,

to furnish to it personal data held by that Minister of the Government or the Commissioners, as the case may be, when it requires the personal data for the purpose of assessing or reviewing the eligibility of persons for services provided under the Health Acts 1947 to 2013.

(2) The Minister for Social Protection may request the Health Service Executive to furnish to him or her personal data held by the Health Service Executive when he or she requires the personal data for the purpose of calculating the means of persons to assess or review the entitlement of such persons to the receipt of benefits and services provided under the Social Welfare Acts.

(3) The Revenue Commissioners may request the Health Service Executive to furnish to them personal data held by the Health Service Executive when the Commissioners require the personal data for the purpose of assessing or collecting any tax, duty or other charge payable to the Revenue Commissioners.

(4) F2[Subject to compliance with the Data Protection Regulation and the Act of 2018 and subject to this section], a person who receives a request made in accordance with subsection (1), (2) or (3) shall comply with that request and shall do so in accordance with an agreement entered into under subsection (5) between the person and the person who made the request.

(5) For the purposes of this section, there shall be entered into between the Health Service Executive and each of the following—

(a) the Minister for Social Protection, and

(b) the Revenue Commissioners,

an agreement (a “data exchange agreement”) which shall specify the procedures to be followed by each party to the agreement with respect to the furnishing of personal data in compliance with a request made under subsection (1), (2) or (3).

(6) A data exchange agreement may be varied by the parties to the agreement.

(7) The Health Service Executive shall consult with F2[the Data Protection Commission] in relation to a data exchange agreement before it is entered into or varied.

(8) F3[…]

(9) For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby declared that F2[references in this section to personal data shall include references to special categories of personal data (within the meaning of section 2 of the Act of 2018)].

F2[(10) In this section—

‘Act of 2018’ means the Data Protection Act 2018;

‘Data Protection Regulation’ means Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016⁴⁶ on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation);

‘personal data’ means personal data within the meaning of the Data Protection Regulation.]

(11) Nothing in this section shall affect the operation of section 261 or 265 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005.