Written answers
Tuesday, 22 September 2015
Department of Justice and Equality
Data Protection
Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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579. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her views on concerns regarding the occasionally lengthy time periods involved in processing complaints by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioners; her further views that in these time periods private data can remain for years in the public domain while a case is investigated; her plans to make more resources available to the Data Protection Commissioners such that they can process claims more expeditiously. [31079/15]
Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) was established under Section 9 of the Data Protection Act 1988. The Data Protection Commissioner's statutory functions include the monitoring of implementation of data protection law, the investigation of complaints and, where appropriate, the taking of legal proceedings in the event of breaches of data protection rules. The ODPC is an Office under the aegis of my Department but is statutorily independent in the discharge of its functions. Accordingly, as Minister, I have no role in relation to the processing of complaints.
The Government, and I as Minister, continue to keep the resourcing of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner actively under review and my aim is to ensure that the Commissioner has the necessary resources to continue to meet the ongoing demands of this expanding sector.
In this regard, I am pleased to confirm that the resources made available to the ODPC have been significantly increased. The ODPC's 2015 budget allocation of €3.647m is double its allocation for the previous year and sanction was received from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for an additional 18 staff across a range of grades. With 17 of these additional staff in place by October 2015, the ODPC's staff numbers will have increased to 46, representing an increase of more than 50% over 2014 staffing levels and, as I have set out above, this is kept under review.
Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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580. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if the Data Protection Commissioner has the power, prior to the issuance of an enforcement notice following investigation of a reported data breach, to place a stay on any further processing of the data in question until such time as the case has been fully investigated and brought to a conclusion by the Data Protection Commissioner; and if this power exists, the reason it was not exercised in the case of a person (details supplied). [31080/15]
Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will appreciate that I am not in a position as Minister of State of Justice and Equality to interpret the law, or to provide advice on a particular case in response to a Parliamentary Question. Moreover, it should be noted that the Data Protection Commissioner enjoys complete independence in the performance of her functions under the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003.
Statutory provisions relating to the investigation of complaints and the issue of enforcement notices are set out in section 10 of the Data Protection Act 1988, as amended. Where the Commissioner considers that the Act has been contravened in relation to the collection, processing, use or disclosure of personal data by a data controller, an enforcement notice may, having regard to due process requirements, require the blocking, rectification, erasure or destruction of the data concerned. The normal time limits applicable to enforcement notices do not, however, apply where the Commissioner by reason of special circumstances considers that the matter should be dealt with urgently and includes a statement to that effect in the notice.
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