Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this Bill, which proposes to give further effect to the EU's GDPR and to transpose the 2016 directive on data protection in terms of law enforcement functions.

Aspects of the GDPR that are dealt with in the Bill include the rights of data subjects, the establishment of a new data protection commission, the regulation of data controllers and processors and enforcement by way of regulatory action and the courts. Events happening outside the House make these topics even more timely than they would normally be. I am referring, of course, to the extraordinary events surrounding the data breaches at Independent News & Media and the manner in which the Director of Corporate Enforcement has been personally singled out for performing his statutory function by individuals who wield enormous but unelected influence in the State. That did not just happen today or yesterday either.

We have seen instances of this control, threats and fear being imposed on journalists and many other people before. We made our bed and now we must lie in it. The Minister of State, Deputy Breen, has heard me speaking in the House previously on issues of big business, including the banks, and the small cohort of people who wield enormous influence, be it in the beef or wider food industry, or in spin. The Government invested €5 million in spin but only got a short spin. It spun out of control. Mr. Eddie Jordan was not driving it anyway. It crash-landed somewhere in a dustbin. The spin is now in the bin, which is the right place for it. Governments have been too cosy with big business and allowed it to wield influence, and to hell with the duine beag. The small people do not matter anymore. We are only in the way.

The Minister of State is a west Clare man and an Teachta Michael Collins and I are from two rural constituencies, but when we start talking about rural issues, the Government switches off. We are a nuisance and an irritant to it now. If the Government had a can of spray like one can buy for beetles, it would get rid of us. Deputies over there would have used it already. They are using it and getting away with it.

We must wake up. We have made our bed, and now we must lie in it or else jump out and do something.

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