Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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86. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will provide in tabular form, the number of staff in her data protection office; if she has a specified data protection officer; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44731/14]

Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy may wish to note that the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) is an Office under the aegis of my Department. However, the Office is statutorily independent in the discharge of its functions. There is currently thirty staff serving in the ODPC in Full Time Equivalent (FTE) terms.

My Department also has responsibility for data protection legislation and policy including the negotiations which are currently ongoing at European level in relation to the updating of the European Union Data Protection framework.

In respect of the administration of Data Protection access requests received by my Department, I understand that such requests for the Department's main offices are processed by the Information Access Unit. There are three staff members in this Unit including the Data Protection Access Officer.