Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. It is welcome that the Minister has identified that something will be done for Members of this House and other elected representatives. Looking at the equivalent British legislation, we can see that they are going through a similar process with their Bill. Some regulations have been included in it, not for the purpose of exempting politicians but recognising the very unique role politicians play in society. If we do not stand up for the status of what we do, as politicians, we may as well give up being Members of the House. We are not doing this to benefit ourselves but rather for the benefit of democracy.

It is important to recognise that we can have all of the data protection laws in the world in place, but there will be a huge responsibility placed on the Data Protection Commissioner. Fortunately, we have very many large technological companies in the country. Notwithstanding my views about the threat posed to individualism, it is welcome that employment is provided by these large groups. We need to recognise that the Data Protection Commissioner will have a major job to do as a result of the passing of the Bill and the extra responsibilities that will rest with the office.

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The Data Protection Commissioner is going to have a huge job to do as a result of the passing of this Bill and the extra responsibilities that will rest on her. We need to fund it properly.

I am also pleased to hear the Minister say he has looked at the recommendations of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality. Much work was done on that committee on pre-legislative scrutiny. We produced a number of recommendations. One point that concerned me during the pre-legislative scrutiny, and this may provoke a wry smile from some people here, is that the law in respect of data protection will become a lawyer's holiday. The last thing we want is to have a situation where people can have their data infringed to a minor extent but a team of lawyers will advance a data protection claim which will result in not an enormous award of damages to the person whose data has been breached but it will be accompanied by correspondingly large legal bills.

I also support the finding of the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality recommending that fines be administered to public bodies in breach of new data protection legislation. If fines are not imposed on public bodies, there is no real sanction. The argument is that it is just a fine going from one public body to another. However, in that case, no sanctions would ever be imposed on a public body. We need to have a sanction in place. It is not so much the actual payment of the fine that is significant, but the fact that the fine has been imposed, recognising the wrongdoing on the part of the public body. I welcome that there is an entitlement to seek compensation. In general, the courts to date have awarded small amount of damages in respect of data protection breaches. Obviously, there may be examples of where large damages should be awarded. In general, however, I think the damages awarded should be moderate. That echoes the concern I have about the fact that we have to careful not to generate it into an industry where people can take class actions for breaches of data protection and the awarded damages will be minimal but the costs will be significant.

I have gone on for long enough. I and Fianna Fáil will be co-operating with the Minister and the rest of the House in trying to ensure this is enacted. We will probably be tabling our own amendments on Committee Stage and I welcome listening to the other contributors to the debate.

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