Ms Jennifer O'Sullivan:

The situation is as challenging as we expected given there is a new legal framework and, simultaneously, data protection and privacy is now part of public discourse in the mainstream whereas a few years ago it was not. Regarding our budget and funding, this year the commission will become the Accounting Officer for its own funding. We will be separate from the Department in that regard from next year, and we will have our own Vote. It is not that this speaks directly to our independence as a supervisory authority but it further underlines our independence as an organisation. This change will occur in the coming months.