12. (1) (a) The Minister may, where he or she considers it appropriate to do so in the interests of individuals who have been assigned individual health identifiers and who are being provided, in another Member State, with a service that, in the opinion of the Minister, is the equivalent, in that other Member State, of a health service within the meaning of section 2(1), enter into an agreement to which this section applies.

(b) This section applies to an agreement between the Minister and a person who, in the opinion of the Minister, is the equivalent (in this Act referred to as the “equivalent person”), in the other Member State, of a health services provider referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of the definition of “health services provider” in section 2(1), for the purpose of allowing the equivalent person to obtain and use an individual health identifier, and to access the National Register of Individual Health Identifiers, on or after the coming into operation of section 11(1), in so far as any such accessing relates to an individual referred to in paragraph (a).

(2) An agreement made under this section shall specify all the matters that the Minister considers appropriate to the processing of an individual’s relevant information (individual), or the accessing of the National Register of Individual Health Identifiers, by the equivalent person and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, shall include the following:

(a) the name, address and other contact details of the equivalent person;

(b) the name and other contact details of the person nominated by the equivalent person as the person to whom any queries in relation to the agreement can be made;

(c) the specific activities for which the equivalent person can process an individual’s relevant information (individual) or access the National Register of Individual Health Identifiers;

(d) the measures that the equivalent person is to put in place, or cause to be put in place, that are the equivalent, in the other Member State concerned, of measures referred to in subsection (4) of section 10 in so far as paragraph (b) of that subsection is concerned; and

(e) the sanction that is provided for any breach of the agreement by the equivalent person.

(3) The Minister shall not make an agreement under this section except after consultation with the Data Protection Commissioner.

(4) The Data Protection Commissioner may, at any time, review the operation of an agreement made under this section and, where he or she does so, shall make a report to the Minister on his or her findings, and the Minister shall take such action as he or she considers appropriate arising from that report.