Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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142. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality his plans on section 30 of the Data Protection Act 2018; his plans to amend and commence section 30 by way of legislation and or statutory instrument; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52365/18]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware from the detailed response which I gave to previous Parliamentary Questions from the Deputy, in particular Questions  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.     

For the Deputy's information, the Data Protection Commission - which acts with complete independence in the performance of its tasks and exercise of its powers - has informed my Department that it will shortly be launching a public consultation on the processing of children’s personal data and the data protection rights of children under the GDPR. This will provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to make submissions on issues concerning the processing of children’s personal data, the safeguards and standards applicable to children, and the rights of children as data subjects. The aim of the consultation is to promote increased awareness of children’s data protection issues and to establish appropriate standards of protection across all sectors where children’s personal data are processed.