The criteria for making a valid complaint to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) is set out under Article 77 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This states that an individual can make a complaint if they consider that the ‘processing of personal data relating to him or her infringes this Regulation’. Therefore, for a complaint to be valid, there must be processing of your personal data in the first instance and this processing must then infringe some part of the GDPR.

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) cannot examine any allegations of defamation (a defamatory statement that tends to injure a person’s reputation in the eyes of reasonable members of society). If you have evidence that the records are factually inaccurate then you can request their erasure or rectification. You may also wish to seek independent legal advice on the matter.

For further information, read our guidance on Data Subject Access Requests – FAQ.

Article 16 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides for the rectification of personal data where the personal data that is being processed is inaccurate, or taking into account the purposes of processing, the data is incomplete in some way.

Depending on the data you are seeking access to, it may be the case that the access request falls under the Law Enforcement Directive (LED) as opposed to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You can request your information from An Garda Síochána (AGS) by following the instructions on the Data Access Request section of the An Garda Síochána website.

Data protection law does not apply to the personal data of deceased persons. However, a particular data controller, for reasons of goodwill, may choose upon request to supply data relating to a deceased person to a relative. Should this occur, care must be exercised by the relevant data controller when such data is being disclosed to ensure that it does not disclose the personal data of third parties.

Back-up data are data kept only for the limited purpose of replacing other data in the event of their being lost, destroyed or damaged. As back-up data are copies of "live" data, they are not considered to be subject to an access request made under Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data kept for any other purpose, such as archive data, would not be considered “back-up data” and therefore should be included in any Article 15 request for a copy of one’s personal data.

If there is potential that the people named in those records are still alive then their consent is required, otherwise the release of their personal data could be considered a breach. If it could be reasonably assumed that the individuals named in these books/registers are now deceased, there would be no data protection issue.

The right to access your personal data is a basic right and applies by law regardless of the type of body or entity that is holding your personal data. Accordingly, you have a basic right to access your personal data held by, amongst others, doctors, hospitals or consultants treating you in a private or public capacity. In response to such a request, you should receive anything held on file or computer by the health professional or facility that relates to you or from which you can be identified.

Section 56 of the Data Protection Act 2018 provides for an Article 15 right of access to results, scripts of examination and results of an appeal. Article 15 requests made in relation to examination results or scripts completed during the course of an examination, are taken to be made on the later of:

(a) The date of the first publication of the results of the examination, or

(b) The date of the request

An Article 15 request for the result of an appeal against an examination is taken to have been made on the later of:

The Central Bank of Ireland, under the Credit Reporting Act 2013 as amended, maintains a central record of repayments made on loans, whether mortgages or personal, and credit cards. To get a copy of your credit report further information is available on the Central Credit Register website.