Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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500. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the estimated cost of increasing funding to the Data Protection Commissioners by 15%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10938/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government commits to ‘recognise the domestic and international importance of data protection in Ireland’ and states that the Government ‘will ensure that Ireland delivers on its responsibilities under the General Data Protection Regulation’.

The Government is very conscious of the commitment to deliver effective data protection regulation and protection of the data privacy rights of EU citizens, which is critical to the development and growth of our digital economy. My Department’s role is to ensure that the Data Protection Commission (DPC) continues to have the resources required to fulfil its important, statutory obligations.

To that end, the Data Protection Commission (DPC) budget has risen steadily over recent years. The DPC is funded under its own Vote as of 1 January 2020, and the Commissioner is the Accounting Officer. The Commission received an allocation of €26.2 million under Budget 2023, an increase of €3m from 2022. This means that funding will have increased more than seven-fold from its 2015 allocation of €3.647m, in line with its increased functions.

A 15% increase on the 2023 Budget allocation for the DPC would amount to €3.93m of additional funding.