Ireland's data protection commissioner Helen Dixon in 2019. Image: Stuart Isett/Fortune Global Forum/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Minister Helen McEntee, TD said the new commissioners will support an ‘effective and well-resourced’ regulator and that a third commissioner will be appointed soon.
Dr Des Hogan and Dale Sunderland have been announced as two new data protection commissioners, replacing the outgoing Helen Dixon.
Both individuals will take up their new positions on 20 February for a five-year term, with Hogan being appointed as chair of the Data Protection Commission. They will enter their new roles the day after Helen Dixon’s tenure officially comes to an end.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, TD, said the DPC’s role has grown and that it has responsibility for “a significant body of work”.
“In recent years, as GDPR and protection of personal data have moved into mainstream public consciousness, the DPC has seen its workload increase in all areas of the organisation,” McEntee said. “85pc of the fines issued across Europe last year, including the EU, EEA and UK, were issued by the DPC on foot of detailed and comprehensive investigations.
“The two new commissioners will support an effective and well-resourced, highly-skilled regulator.”
McEntee thanked Dixon for the role she played in building up the DPC over the past decade and said the organisation’s “size and remit expanded significantly” under her leadership. Dixon will take on a new job as commissioner at Ireland’s communications regulator, ComReg.
Hogan has been assistant chief state solicitor in the Office of the Chief State Solicitor since 2015. He previously worked for the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and for Amnesty International in Australia. He has a PhD in law from Trinity College Dublin.
Sunderland joined the DPC in 2016 as a deputy commissioner and played a central role in building up its capacity as a leading GDPR enforcer. He held various roles in the Department of Justice from 2002 to 2016.
The Irish Government said a third DPC commissioner will be appointed “as soon as possible”.
The new commissioners have challenges ahead of them however, as the DPC has been criticised over the years, with accusations of having “torturous” procedures and being a “bottleneck of GDPR investigation and enforcement”.
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Ireland’s data protection commissioner Helen Dixon in 2019. Image: Stuart Isett/Fortune Global Forum via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
