Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 26 September 2019

Public Accounts Committee

2018 Financial Statements of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner

9:00 am

Ms Helen Dixon:

Yes, I can give the Deputy the statistics. We have had several protected disclosures made to us from outside. In general, most of them have been in fact complaints by individuals within organisations about how personal data has been processed. In many of the cases, we have agreed with the individual to examine the complaint on its merits. We have then discussed with them whether we can process the complaint in circumstances where they would have wanted to remain anonymous. The statistics for 2019 are five received, three closed, one under investigation and one under assessment. In 2018, five received, four closed and one still being investigated. We have statistics going back to 2015 if the Deputy wants them.