Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome our friends from Malawi. I wish them a céad míle fáilte.

While the fine of €1.2 billion for Facebook is the largest fine ever imposed under the general data protection regulation, GDPR, the size of the fine masks a number of issues with GDPR itself and with the Irish Data Protection Commission, DPC. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ICCL, has said that 75% of decisions by the DPC have been overruled by its European counterparts. This fine was forced on the DPC by Europe. As the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice has said, if the DPC continues to emphasise guidance over enforcement then the fundamental rights of citizens are at risk and big tech will be emboldened.

Tomorrow marks five years of GDPR, which presents a moment for us to reflect, and so I call for a Seanad debate on data protection. When it comes to data, we must remember that citizens have a right to privacy and a right to data protection, but we also have a collective right to use and control our resources. Surely it is not acceptable for big tech to claim the de facto ownership of the most valuable resource in history.