Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola has hit out at a legal notice that enables the Minister of Education to collect 'huge amounts of personal and sensitive data' of school children, saying that the potential for abuse is 'staggering'.

 All this data is meant to be used for research or employment advice.

"Parents, teachers and students alike are naturally worried and are asking all sorts of questions. This Government's half-baked attempt to explain itself has done nothing to alleviate people's concerns. It must come clean and explain to us why it is necessary for data on the ability and educational attainments of our children in pre-primary school to be collected; Who has access to the data?; Where and how is this data being stored?; Why was this passed through without a public debate?; It is almost as if the legal notice was published with the hope that no one would notice. It is like something out of a George Orwell novel", said Dr Metsola.

"When you consider that the European Parliament has only recently voted on sweeping new Data Protection regulations and privacy rules, this law is of huge concern. We must be assured that Personal Data is only collected according to very strict criteria, for very limited use, with proper restrictions on access and storage. People deserve better answers", concluded Dr Metsola.