Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy has asked a lot of questions about this serious matter. This morning, the Cabinet spent some time discussing many of the issues he has raised. I will set out the Government response on this so far. The Data Protection Bill 2018 is coming through the Seanad at the moment. We have approved a Report Stage amendment which is not directly related to the issues raised by Deputy Ryan. After the Bill has been passed by the Seanad, it will be considered on the floor of the Dáil and we will have an opportunity to tease through these issues in some detail. We need to ensure the Data Protection Commissioner is adequately resourced. There has been a dramatic increase in the level of resources made available to the Data Protection Commissioner and her office. I think her resources have increased fourfold over the past three years. This year, the number of staff will increase significantly to approximately 140 from just over 80 last year.

We are trying to learn lessons and take on board legitimate issues which are being raised by Opposition parties. For example, Fianna Fáil recently proposed a Private Members' Bill on online advertising and social media transparency. Although we did not accept that legislation at the time, on the back of it we have set up an interdepartmental group, chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach, to ensure we are looking at all these issues and responding appropriately.

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