Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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107. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will provide details of the staffing complement and the staff structures at the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38525/15]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, 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 and is independent in the performance of its functions. I can advise the Deputy that the Government, and I as Minister, continue to keep the resourcing of the ODPC 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.

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, permitting a staff complement of approximately 50 including an additional 18 staff. The budget has been further increased to over €4.7m for 2016.

The ODPC's staff complement includes legal, technical, investigations, audit and communications specialists as well as policy and administration staff.

Recruitment to the Office is ongoing and a number of assignments are expected to be finalised within the coming weeks. These will also be augmented by a further injection of staff, including specialist staff in coming months. The current staff number (for both the Dublin and Portarlington Offices) is 42, as shown by grade in the table below.