Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is very nice to be back on this side of the House after almost ten years. I am glad to be responding to this matter on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality. It is a very important case. The Deputy has mentioned the implications for Ireland's data protection regime of the recent judgement of the European Court of Justice on the EU-US privacy shield. I welcome the opportunity to update the House on the matter.

The Government respects the views and findings of the European Court of Justice and is fully supportive of the need to protect European citizens' data. This is an issue that affects us all and should be subject to the highest protections. The Minister acknowledges that the court's decision to strike down the EU-US privacy shield is a matter of serious concern for Irish and European businesses that transfer data to the US but welcomes the court's findings upholding the use of standard contractual clauses to facilitate the transfer of data between the EU and countries outside it. The Minister notes that in these matters, it is important that we respect the independence of the courts and the Data Protection Commission, DPC. The Data Protection Commission is an independent national authority responsible for upholding the fundamental right of individuals in the EU to have their personal data protected. The DPC is the Irish supervisory authority for the GDPR and has functions and powers related to other important regulatory frameworks, including the Irish e-privacy regulations, and the EU directive known as the law enforcement directive.

Matters concerning data protection are governed by several legislative frameworks, including the GDPR, the Data Protection Acts, the law enforcement directive and the 2011 e-privacy regulations.

The DPC is entirely independent of the Government, as is required under the GDPR. Together with our EU partners, we will need to examine the impact the ruling of the European Court of Justice will have on the continued use of standard contractual clauses, SCCs. Although the original reference to the Court of Justice originated from our High Court, this is not solely an Irish matter, as the Deputy noted, and it is not one that we can unilaterally fix. The ruling strikes down the European Commission's adequacy decision on the EU-US privacy shield. We will need to review the judgment and will work with the European Commission and our European partners to contribute to a solution.

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