27. (1) A public service body or an agent of that body, where the information concerned is held by that agent, shall at the request of the Minister provide information referred to in subsection (2) to the Minister for the purposes of—

(a) the performance of a function conferred on or transferred to the Minister under section 8(3), 9(1)(a), 10 or 17 of the Act of 2011,

(b) carrying out actuarial calculations in respect of public service pension schemes or public expenditure,

(c) calculating the adjustment to the expenditure by a public service body consequent upon the implementation of a policy or proposed policy of the Government,

(d) assessing the current and future staffing requirements of a public service body,

(e) developing, and analysing the consequences of, a policy or proposed policy of the Government for the purposes of—

(i) eliminating discrimination,

(ii) promoting equality of opportunity and treatment, or

(iii) protecting human rights,

in public service bodies, or

(f) carrying out an analysis of the structure, functions, resources and service delivery methods of a public service body.

(2) The information to be provided under subsection (1) is the following:

(a) the information referred to in section 25(2)(a) and section 26(2)(a) and (b);

(b) demographic information relating to a public servant, including age, gender and any disclosed disability;

(c) information relating to the employment of a public servant, including payment-related information and information relating to the public servant’s employer, contract of employment, length of service and grade;

(d) such additional information as may be prescribed.

(3) The Minister shall have regard to the following when prescribing additional information under subsection (2)(d):

(a) the need to strengthen the accountability of public service bodies;

(b) the need to improve the quality of decision-making of public bodies;

(c) the need to promote an evidence-based approach to the development of policy;

(d) the need to increase the efficiency of public service bodies in carrying out their functions;

(e) the need to ensure adequate information is available to facilitate effective staffing requirements planning across the public service;

(f) the need to facilitate trend analysis, scenario testing and forecasting in relation to—

(i) the number of public servants, and

(ii) expenditure on pay and pensions by public service bodies;

(g) the need to ensure adequate information is available to develop, implement and monitor policies for the purposes of—

(i) eliminating discrimination,

(ii) promoting equality of opportunity and treatment, or

(iii) protecting human rights,

in public service bodies.

(4) In paragraph (e) of subsection (1) and paragraph (g) of subsection (3)—

“discrimination” shall be construed in accordance with section 6 of the Employment Equality Act 1998;

“human rights” has the same meaning as it has in Part 3 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014.