Are you interested in being involved in the Committee’s work?

The purpose of the Health Research Regulations is to support health research and promote enhanced public confidence in such research. The Consent Declaration Committee is an important part of that process.

The Regulations make explicit consent of the data subject the default position for such processing.  However, they also recognise that there may be circumstances where potentially very important health research might not be able to proceed because obtaining consent is not possible.  For that reason, the Regulations provide for a statutory consent declaration process which allows researchers to apply for an exception to the consent requirement.

In order that such applications are carefully considered from a range of perspectives, the Minister provided in the Regulations for an independent and representative committee –the Consent Declaration Committee- to make decisions on those applications.   Members of the Committee will be persons:

  • with knowledge, experience or qualifications in -data protection, research ethics, statistics, information security, eHealth, technology, law generally or other relevant areas;
  • with knowledge, experience or qualifications in -healthcare, health services management or planning or health research;
  • who are representative of data subjects –members of the public, patients etc.

If you are interested in being part of the Committee and have the time to do so, then please contact us at secretariat@hrcdc.ie

You should provide some details about yourself (what you’ve worked at, what your interests are, any relevant qualifications you have etc.) and the contribution you feel you can make.  All expressions of interest will be treated in confidence.

As per the Regulations, it is for the Minister to make appointments to the Committee and the Minister will do so having regard to the need to ensure that the Committee has the necessary skills set and the necessary representative scope.   While the Committee provides for a maximum membership of 21 it is likely that appointments will be on a phased basis to ensure that the necessary skills and best representation are achieved.

The Committee, to be based in Dublin, is likely to sit once a month (probably 10 months of the year) and there would be preparatory work to do in terms of reading the applications for consent declarations that are to be considered by the Committee at its meetings.  Training will be provided.  There is no payment envisaged but travel and subsistence is payable.

Skip to content