Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

478. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he is considering legislative measures to amend section 30 of the Data Protection Act 2018 in order to retain the spirit of the section and to address the concerns of the European Commission and the Attorney General; if so, the details of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36098/18]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware from the detailed response which I gave to the Deputy's Parliamentary Questions  Nos. 623 and 628 on 24 July last concerning commencement of section 30 of the Data Protection Act 2018, Article 58 of the GDPR already confers a far-reaching power on supervisory authorities such as the Data Protection Commission to order controllers and processors to bring processing operations into compliance with the GDPR's provisions, including the standards and safeguards applicable to the processing of children's personal data. 

Moreover, Article 58 also confers powers on the Data Protection Commission to impose a temporary or definitive limitation, including a ban, on such processing and to impose an administrative fine pursuant to Article 83 in the case of infringements. This means that the possibility of imposing significant administrative fines on controllers and processors in cases of unlawful processing of children's personal data, as foreseen in section 30, already exists without the commencement of, or any amendments to, that section.

As regards possible future changes to existing law, the position is that I have asked my Department to keep application of those provisions of the GDPR and the 2018 Act that relate specifically to the protection of children's personal data under review. Since both the GDPR and the 2018 Act entered into force on 25 May last, it is not possible to say at this early stage whether any changes to the law will be required.