Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith again, a Chathaoirligh, and I start by asking whether you agree with all the conclusions Mr. Schrems has made, and by acknowledging the enormous contribution he has made in putting issues around data protection and privacy on the agenda. I have two questions, one each for both Mr. Schrems and for Dr. Logue, on the operation of the DPC. Mr. Schrems asked about moving from one commissioner to three here. I certainly would favour that and I ask that he speak further to that view. It follows Mr. Logue’s point that one of the challenges is that the DPC gets caught up with many individual cases and does not spend a significant amount of time on its own volition inquiries. Does Dr. Logue feel there is a better way to strike that balance between dealing with those big picture queries, such as the ones that Mr. Schrems was talking about, dealing with the Facebooks and the TikToks, and distinguishing that from the individual queries?

On the general point that Mr. Schrems made bout the decisions that are being made on data at a European level, and we are going to be dealing with biometrics, facial recognition, and data gathered in all sorts of other ways, to what extent do both witnesses feel policymakers, decision-makers and legislators such as ourselves understand the importance of data privacy and regulation? If they do not feel we understand that, what should be done to address that?