Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is the last issue I will raise. The Data Protection Commission received 4,113 complaints in 2018, which was a 56% increase on 2017. This indicates that this is moving in a certain direction. After the commission's findings it will require additional resources, and I support resourcing the commission's work.

With regard to the European Data Protection Board, the Data Protection Commission is the lead authority in a number of areas. These include issues related to data involving all the multinational companies located here; the Privacy Shield agreement between the US and the EU; Article 47 of the EU charter and where one of them meets and the other or does not; the processing and transfer of data and the use of that data in the US; and the case the commission was involved in with Facebook and Mr. Max Schrems. The Schrems case which, in terms of scale, has received worldwide attention. I have deep concerns about the potential for other cases of similar scale given the geographical area the commission has to cover. I share Ms Dixon's concerns but, while I would love to do so, we will not have time to get into data-specific issues. I will, therefore, zone in on the position from a legal findings point of view into the future. We have to look at organisational process, etc. The Data Protection Commission is the lead European authority and has jurisdiction over various companies. These cases can go on for years and can have dramatic impacts in our modern world. I support the work the commission does but these cases can be highly costly. Who picks up the tab for them? Is it the Irish taxpayer or is it shared across Europe in all cases? I have read the cost is shared but is that always the case? Obviously, there is a lead cost given that we have such jurisdiction. To open up a can of worms, if we lost one of these cases, who would pay? Do we pay collectively or is there a potential issue for the Irish taxpayer? This could be something to protect the commission into the future. Ms Dixon might give some clarity on that whole area.