Ms Helen Dixon:

-----and there are infringements and fines, that Ireland would get to keep the fine. That is an open question that has been raised a number of times.

Regarding the costs, it is well possible that the Irish taxpayer will end up, by virtue of these companies being headquartered here, incurring costs. The Irish taxpayer has incurred costs already in the case the Deputy referenced that is before the Court of Justice of the European Union on transfers of data because it arose from a complaint by Max Schrems against Facebook Ireland. Facebook Ireland being located here means that we are responsible. However, under this co-operation and consistency mechanism that now operates around the one-stop shop in the EU, I have to circulate a draft decision on any of these cases that concern multinationals to my fellow EU data protection authorities. If, ultimately, they have a different view that I cannot reconcile into my findings, I institute a dispute resolution mechanism before the European Data Protection Board and it may take over the decision-making. If a company affected by that decision disagrees with it, it takes an annulment action to the Court of Justice of the European Union. There would be a certain number of cases that may end up being taken out of Ireland's hands because of disagreement between data protection authorities. The European Data Protection Board will then have to bear the cost of defending those cases before the Court of Justice. Undoubtedly, the effect of having the multinationals headquartered in Ireland will give rise to costs for Ireland in terms of the supervision and enforcement of data protection law.