Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and explaining, in an honest and clear way, the hallmark of the way in which he operates, that this is simply a technical issue to correct a printing error. I am aware from the notes, but I would be grateful if he would put it on the record of the House that no individual has been adversely affected as a result of this. That is particularly important.

On the question of data breaches by financial institutions and the area to which this legislation relates, I continue to have particular concerns regarding the capacity of the Data Protection Commissioner to address some of the challenges relating to data breaches in our financial institutions. Three of the top four companies or organisations listed for complaints with the Data Protection Commissioner at the moment are financial institutions, namely, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and AIB. The record is clear that there are serious concerns around data breaches by financial institutions.

This is an issue that I have raised previously in the context not only of the staff in the Data Protection Commission, DPC, but also the levels of expertise of those staff to be able to address these issues. As we continue to develop and data become the new currency of this century, to the great benefit of Ireland and public policymaking in general, the DPC is going to have an increasingly important role in protecting people's data. That has to be central to any policy work we do in this area. I have no doubt that as we see digital banks such as Revolut and others emerge, there will be more challenges. Unlike domestic banks, these institutions will be based all over the world and it is going to be even harder to regulate in that area. I would like to know what guarantees we are going to have as we move towards digital banking on the role of the Data Protection Commissioner and the role for Ireland. That will be particularly relevant if some of the social media giants start to move into the provision of financial services. We must ensure that we have the necessary legislation to address data protection and that the DPC or any other agency is sufficiently resourced to be able to address it.

The fact that so many complaints are being raised about data breaches shows that there are challenges for our domestic banks. They have questions to answer in that regard. Our responsibility, as a State, is to ensure that the State agencies charged with this can do their jobs properly. This is a technical motion and I am fully supportive of it but it does speak to that broader issue, including the adequate resourcing of the DPC.