Irish government departments may face €1m fines for data breaches

Government departments and other public bodies may face regulatory fines of up to €1 million for breaching people’s data protection rights after a Government plan to exempt them from fines was reversed in amendments to legislation before the Oireachtas.

The Data Protection Bill 2018 had proposed to exempt public bodies from fines by the Data Protection Commissioner when a new EU regulation giving the office stronger enforcement powers comes into effect in May. Such bodies would have been exempt save where they were acting in competition with a body in the private sector providing similar services.

Source: Government departments may face €1m fines for data breaches