Is Ireland enforcing GDPR?

Financial Times this week reported that Germany, France, Spain, and Italy are concerned with Ireland’s lack of action in enforcing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Tech companies from the US, like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter, have their EU headquarters in Dublin, and according to GDPR, Ireland is responsible to enforce GDPR on the companies based in Ireland.

GDPR became enforceable beginning 25 May 2018, but Ireland's watchdog (Irish Data Protection Commission) only issued one fine of €450,000 against Twitter, in December 2020, FT reports.

Irish Data Protection Commission has 160 staff and a budget of €17m. Last year, Ireland was the only country growing in the euro zone.

Financial Times details that Germany alone sent more than 50 complaints about WhatsApp to the Irish authorities, but none of which had been closed to date.

This week, the Civil Liberties Committee from the European Parliament call out national governments because supervisory authorities across the EU lack sufficient human, technical and financial resources to perform their tasks and exercise their powers effectively.