Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 November 2020

Tuesday, 24 November 2020

Questions (172)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

172. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of data access requests the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has made to telecom companies and social media companies here in the past three years to date in 2020 under the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011; the number of access requests that were approved and declined by the companies that the data was requested from; and the reason the data was sought. [38852/20]

Written answers

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Any requests made by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement to companies are operational matters for the ODCE. Section 949(3) of the Companies Act 2014 provides that the Director of Corporate Enforcement shall be independent in the performance of his statutory functions. I, as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Innovation have no direct function in such matters.

I am informed by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement that the provisions of the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 do not currently extend to the Director of Corporate Enforcement.