Confidential information - Deliberate Release

Confidential information is dealt with under Article 10 of the GMO (Deliberate Release) Regulations S.I. No 500 of 2003 amended by the GMO (Deliberate Release) (Amendment) Regulations S.I. No 278 of 2021.  This Article specifies items of information which the notifier may request the Agency to treat as confidential and the Agency is required to consider that request.

A notifier requesting the Agency to treat certain information confidentially must provide verifiable justification for that request (Article 10(2)).

The Agency will consider the request and will decide which information will be considered confidential. (Article 10(5)). 

The Agency will inform the notifier of its decision. (Article 10(3)).
The Agency will also decide whether the information is required by the Inspector in their review of the notification. 

• If the Agency decides that the information (confidential or otherwise) will not be required by the Agency in making its decision, it will be destroyed in-house. 
• If the Agency decides that the information is confidential and is required by the Agency in making its decision it will be held securely and destroyed in-house once a decision has been reached. 

Submitting confidential information to the Agency
Where a notifier requests that certain information be kept confidential, the following procedure should be followed. 
Procedure for submitting confidential information under the Deliberate Release Legislation

The notifier is advised to submit all confidential information by registered post or by courier and to notify the GMO Team of this in advance.