Patrick Costello, Green Party TD for Dublin South Central, today welcomed the announcement from Government that there would be an appointment of two additional Data Protection Commissioners at the Data Protection Commission.

He began, “Since I entered the Dáil this has been something I have worked on consistently. I have demanded action on this issue in the chamber, in Committee and at every opportunity. This is a welcome move towards fully vindicating GDPR rights.”

On the planned review of structures, staffing and processes Costello stated “It is imperative that any review be fully independent of both the Commission and of the Government. The DPC cannot review themselves. The challenge in the office must be examined by outside, impartial expertise”.

Putting the additional appointment into a wider context Costello continued, “This is an important move not just for the rights of citizens in Ireland. In a tech context Dublin is the main EU hub for the Silicon Valley companies. The appointment of two additional commissioners therefore has wider ramifications in terms of protecting GDPR rights of EU citizens from across the 27 member states.”

Concluding he remarked, “This represents a following through of a key recommendation of the Oireachtas Justice Committee in our GDPR report. It is therefore to be welcomed. It is however not the panacea in of itself. We must now address the significant backlog of existing DPC cases. Once this is cleared the DPC should be actively looking for cases and investigating them in a timely manner. Only when this is done can Irish and EU citizens truly have faith in their data rights being upheld.”