Minister for Data Protection Dara Murphy has strongly defended the State's data protection record ahead of a key EU meeting in Brussels.
EU ministers are expected to sign off on Friday on a key aspect of the new data protection regulation which has been winding its way through the EU legislative process since 2012.
Ireland has been criticised by some countries, most notably Germany, for what is perceived as a lenient attitude towards data protection.
The issue of data protection is particularly pertinent to Ireland, as 29 out of 30 of the world’s largest data companies have their European headquarters in the Republic. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner effectively regulates data issues for those companies’ operations throughout the EU.
This has led to a number of cases being taken against Irish bodies on the issue, such as the ongoing action by Austrian citizen Max Schrems against Facebook Ireland.
All 28 EU countries are expected to sign up to the so-called “one-shop stop” model tomorrow, which will permit citizens to lodge a complaint about data privacy issues with the data protection regulator in their country of residence.
But the proposed compromise also makes considerable concessions to Germany - any third party can appeal a decision by a data protection commissioner in one country to a pan-European body called the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), effectively giving citizens and individual data protection commissioners the right to appeal the original decision.
Ireland ‘disappointed’
Speaking in Brussels ahead of the meeting, Mr Murphy said that while the proposed model was an important development for citizens, Ireland was disappointed the proposed regulation was not going further.
"Everyone will enter the system at one point of entry and that it is very important, so that if you live in Cork and have a complaint that query will then be 'owned', essentially, by the Irish Data Protection Commission. "
However, that decision can then be subject to appeal to the EDPB, Mr Murphy added.
“We would have liked to have seen a little bit more on the qualitative or quantitative selection of how cases would enter that [appeal] process. At the moment, essentially anybody can appeal, and we believe that this is a little bit too cumbersome.”
Ireland had proposed that a minimum of a third of all EU member states should support a proposed appeal, before it could be sanctioned. “We would have preferred a system where it would have taken a number of countries to trigger an appeals process, where now it is just one.”
Overall, the Minister said that an update of EU legislation on data protection was long overdue.
"We need to have common regulatory regimes in place. The last time we had a data protection directive was in 1995 . . . It has been a failing - not just here but in other jurisdictions, including the United States - that regulation has not kept pace with the speed of technology."
Important issue
The issue of data privacy in the digital age has emerged as an important issue in the EU over the last year, following revelations about NSA surveillance. The issue is particularly sensitive in countries such as Germany and Austria.
Mr Murphy disputed claims that Ireland was overly lenient when it came to data privacy regulation, pointing out that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner had undertaken a number of audits of Facebook.
The Portarlington-based Data Protection Commission also received an extra €3.5 million in the last budget and has doubled its staff, opening a new office in Dublin.
Mr Murphy said: “We have a very proud tradition in our country of our independent regulators, whether it is in the courts, in the DPP, or the Data Protection Commissioner in this case.
“We would not forsee a disproportionate number of our cases being overturned by the EDPB, ultimately.”
Lobbyplag research
Earlier this week, The Irish Times reported that privacy campaign group Lobbyplag put Ireland in third place behind Germany and Britain in terms of the countries pushing for changes to the EU data protection regulation, which the group said would benefit the interests of private companies and public bodies over citizens.
Mr Murphy said he had no comment to make on the findings of the research, pointing out that it was unusual that two countries “as diametrically opposed” as the UK and Germany on data privacy issues could be so close in such a survey.
Mr Murphy said he was proud of Ireland’s “pro-business environment”, and that “we believe in engaging with business, particularly when we are dealing with technology”, before adding that the Irish Data Protection Commissioner sits down with both businesses and State bodies during the course of her work.
