Cianan Brennan: Taking on Data Protection Commission work that's ‘beyond one person’

The country has two new data protection commissioners, with a third to be in place before year end

GDPR compliance and concerns are high on the agenda of the new data protection commissioners.

After handing down eye-watering fines to tech super-giants such as Meta and battling over thorny subjects such as the Public Services Card, the Data Protection Commission (DPC) has had a relatively quiet first five months of 2024.

The country’s two newest data protection commissioners, chairman Des Hogan and former deputy data protection commissioner Dale Sunderland, seem a little taken aback when questioned as to what decisions the commission has made lately, given the chief reason that three commissioners were to be appointed rather than one in the first place was the perceived slow pace of the organisation’s rulings, particularly in terms of big tech. The final commissioner is to be in place before the end of this year.