Public bodies, including Government departments and agencies, will be exempt from fines where they breach people’s data protection rights, under new legislation. The Data Protection Bill 2018 makes provision for people to seek compensation in the Circuit Court for breaches of their data protection rights. The Bill gives effect to two new EU regulations: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); and an associated regulation on the processing of personal data for law-enforcement purposes. Public bodies will be subject to fines only where they are acting in competition with a private company. The Bill provides that the Data Protection Commissioner’s office will be renamed the Data Protection Commission and allows for up to three commissioners to be appointed in response to an increased workload.

Source: The Irish Times February 01, 2018 19:41 UTC