Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the inclusion of data protection statements next week. This is something that Sinn Féin and others have called for in this House and it is long overdue. In July last year, the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, made a commitment to appoint two additional data protection commissioners. These posts have still not been advertised, let alone filled. We were told by the Minister that this process would take six months, yet these much-needed posts have not yet been advertised. GDPR provides strong protection for citizens and for investigative powers and enforcement powers for the Data Protection Commission, DPC. The failure of the Government to appoint two additional data protection commissioners leaves the DPC ill-equipped to do its job and exposes citizens to their personal data being breached and their rights being infringed. The job of the DPC is to safeguard the data protection rights of citizens and it needs these additional posts to do its job. When will the Government advertise these positions? What is the Government doing? We are now a year on.