This should not be happening at all during a Covid year in which few people see these ads & the context is not clearly explained -- that harvested data obtained for free here can then be sold on in lucrative databases to 3rd parties abroad for private profit. NOT public research. https://twitter.com/RoisinShortall/status/1304124745865203712

People have every right to give informed consent, BUT how many understand the complex issues in taking sensitive data like this? That companies want the *database* & often do NO research, they SELL the data to 3rd parties. WE URGENTLY NEED A NATIONAL PUBLIC GENOME PROJECT.

Cannot state enough how vague it is for companies to pitch DNA grabs as 'possible new treatments!' when there are MANY ways of doing research to get 'possible new treatments' that do NOT involve data going to private, for profit co's, often divisions of big foreign conglomerates

Ireland is one of the ONLY modern nations without a secure, public-benefiting national genome project. Certainly Ireland is the ONLY one I know of that has de facto ceded genome research & lucrative national DNA (worth millions/billions) to private companies that sell DNA access

The exact nature of how data will be & can be used and who owns it & whether it becomes commercial property marketed to other 3rd parties should be clearly stated *in the ads* advising people of opt in/out deadlines. The 'possible treatments!' framing is opaque & vague.

I'm glad @RoisinShortall has kept raising these important issues in the Dáil, & hope other politicians & Ministers listen to the many Irish & international genomics/medical ethics experts arguing Ireland needs a national genome scheme & lacks informed, focused DNA regulation