Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality
General Scheme of Data Protection Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed)
9:00 am
Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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Mr. Kelleher has mentioned his concern that a breach of data protection regulations by a State entity could expose the State to either a class action or the award of considerable damages.
As Mr. Kelleher mentioned, the State has obviously faced representative actions before. The most serious, for example, were from women infected with damaged blood products. They received significant awards. Would Mr. Kelleher not agree, however, that a breach of data protection would be unlikely to result in a significant award of damages? I do not know if there are international examples of this.