Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The amendments are designed to obligate the commission to investigate a complaint. Deputy Ó Laoghaire has tabled an amendment similar to that tabled by Deputy Clare Daly and me. The reworkings of the sections are a consequence of this and provide some additional protocols for the Data Protection Commissioner to follow in regard to a complaint. Section 107(1) contains what many consider to be a very strange provision which appears to allow the commission to receive a complaint and to ignore it not because the complaint is frivolous or vexatious but without offering any reason for so doing. During the debate on the Bill in the Seanad, the Minister stated that he did not consider that there would be such fallout from the section and mentioned that the commission would be required on a general basis to give reasons for its decisions. He also pointed out that reasons would have to be provided to the complainant so as to facilitate an appeal. We still think, however, that section 108(1) in particular empowers the commission to ignore a complaint, stating that it shall "take such action in respect of it as the Commission, having regard to the nature and circumstances of the complaint, considers appropriate". That action could be to ignore the complaint without providing a reason for doing so.

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