Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner was expanding very rapidly in that period. We made provision for the full planned expansion within the year but, obviously, recruitment takes time, particularly in the case of the highly skilled staff required by the commissioner. Quite simply, the recruitment did not reach the level envisaged when the Vote was formed. As I stated, there has been a very significant increase in the staffing level of that office. There was a 33% increase in staffing in 2016, 57% in 2017 and 47% in 2018. It is an unparalleled increase in staffing numbers and it is not particularly surprising that the process took a little longer than was envisaged when we were preparing the estimate.