Mr. Denis Kelleher:

Frankly, it is clearly an issue. The point to be made there is that it is the GDPR and the European Legislature that have decided on the funding mechanism. There is no provision within the GDPR for the Data Protection Commissioner to be self-funded. I believe there was a debate within the European Legislature, within the European Union, as to whether or not one could create a self-funding mechanism. They have not gone down that route. Instead, what they have preferred is that she has to be funded by the State. There have to be protections in there around her funding but she has to be funded by the State. The State, whether one likes it or not, has no option about that.

Obviously, there is the question of what sort of safeguards one can build into the legislation in relation to that. According to the heads of the Bill, that is still being discussed. However, the reality is there is no other funding mechanism available to the State in relation to this. For example, there is no mechanism for the Data Protection Commissioner to impose levies or fees in any way.