Who is monitoring our personal data and how?

Our TDs, senators and media commentators are obsessed by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission having conducted two security checks since 2005. I am appalled that it is so laid back about electronic surveillance.

The real questions are: what regular system monitoring is there by the many State agencies that hold personal data on us all, and who at the top of the Civil Service is charged with risk-assessing that data? We can hardly expect our ministers to micro-manage, so who does? The amateurishness was evident at the questioning of GSOC at the Dáil committee. They cannot resist convoluted statements, instead of focussed, relevant questioning (some could not remember their own question). The drawn-out affair could have been conducted in half the time, with no loss of information. I also wonder why every committee member feels obliged to personally thank those who attend, even though time is severely restricted. Perhaps all TDs and senators should be made sit through full replays as punishment.

The bank inquiry conducted by Oireachtas members will be a doddle.