Data Protection Act 1988

Enactment Date13 July 1988
Act Number25


Number 25 of 1988


DATA PROTECTION ACT 1988

REVISED

Updated to 12 July 2022


This Revised Act is an administrative consolidation of the Data Protection Act 1988. It is prepared by the Law Reform Commission in accordance with its function under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975 (3/1975) to keep the law under review and to undertake revision and consolidation of statute law.

All Acts up to and including the Institutional Burials Act 2022 (18/2022), enacted 13 July 2022, and all statutory instruments up to and including the Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2B) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 354 of 2022), made 12 July 2022, were considered in the preparation of this Revised Act.

Disclaimer: While every care has been taken in the preparation of this Revised Act, the Law Reform Commission can assume no responsibility for and give no guarantees, undertakings or warranties concerning the accuracy, completeness or up to date nature of the information provided and does not accept any liability whatsoever arising from any errors or omissions. Please notify any errors, omissions and comments by email to

revisedacts@lawreform.ie.


Number 25 of 1988


DATA PROTECTION ACT 1988

REVISED

Updated to 12 July 2022


Introduction

This Revised Act presents the text of the Act as it has been amended since enactment, and preserves the format in which it was passed.

Related legislation

Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018: this Act is one of a group of Acts included in this collective citation (Data Protection Act 2018 (s. 1(2)). The Acts in the group are:

Data Protection Act 1988 (25/1988)

Data Protection Act 2003 (6/2003)

Data Protection Act 2018 (7/2018)

Annotations

This Revised Act is annotated and includes textual and non-textual amendments, statutory instruments made pursuant to the Act and previous affecting provisions.

An explanation of how to read annotations is available at

www.lawreform.ie/annotations.

Material not updated in this revision

Where other legislation is amended by this Act, those amendments may have been superseded by other amendments in other legislation, or the amended legislation may have been repealed or revoked. This information is not represented in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the amended legislation if one is available.

Where legislation or a fragment of legislation is referred to in annotations, changes to this legislation or fragment may not be reflected in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the legislation referred to if one is available.

A list of legislative changes to any Act, and to statutory instruments from 1972, may be found linked from the page of the Act or statutory instrument at

www.irishstatutebook.ie.

Acts which affect or previously affected this revision

Childcare Support Act 2018 (11/2018)

Data Protection Act 2018 (7/2018)

Vehicle Registration Data (Automated Searching and Exchange) Act 2018 (5/2018)

National Shared Services Office Act 2017 (26/2017)

Prisons Act 2015 (57/2015)

Communications Regulation (Postal Services) (Amendment) Act 2015 (20/2015)

Customs Act 2015 (18/2015)

Freedom of Information Act 2014 (30/2014)

Health Identifiers Act 2014 (15/2014)

Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Act 2014 (11/2014)

Local Government Reform Act 2014 (1/2014)

Credit Reporting Act 2013 (45/2013)

Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2013 (32/2013)

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Act 2013 (10/2013)

Personal Insolvency Act 2012 (44/2012)

Property Services (Regulation) Act 2011 (40/2011)

Student Support Act 2011 (4/2011)

National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 (34/2009)

Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 (28/2009)

Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009 (15/2009)

Criminal Justice (Mutual Assistance) Act 2008 (7/2008)

Medical Practitioners Act 2007 (25/2007)

Europol (Amendment) Act 2006 (37/2006)

Electoral (Amendment) Act 2006 (33/2006)

Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006 (27/2006)

Disability Act 2005 (14/2005)

Health Act 2004 (42/2004)

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004 (33/2004)

Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 (23/2004)

Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 (7/2004)

Civil Registration Act 2004 (3/2004)

Data Protection (Amendment) Act 2003 (6/2003)

Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 (13/2002)

Customs and Excise (Mutual Assistance) Act 2001 (2/2001)

Planning and Development Act 2000 (30/2000)

Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Act 2000 (7/2000)

British-Irish Agreement Act 1999 (1/1999)

Europol Act 1997 (38/1997)

Health (Provision of Information) Act 1997 (9/1997)

Refugee Act 1996 (17/1996)

Statistics Act 1993 (21/1993)

All Acts up to and including Institutional Burials Act 2022 (18/2022), enacted 13 July 2022, were considered in the preparation of this revision.

Statutory instruments which affect or previously affected this revision

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2B) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 354 of 2022)

European Union (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 113 of 2022)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2 B) (No. 2) Regulations 2016 (S.I. No. 427 of 2016)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2 B) Regulations 2016 (S.I. No. 426 of 2016)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2A) Regulations 2016 (S.I. No. 220 of 2016)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2B) Regulations 2015 (S.I. No. 240 of 2015)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Commencement) Order 2014 (S.I. No. 337 of 2014)

European Union (Capital Requirements) Regulations 2014 (S.I. No. 158 of 2014)

European Union (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2014 (S.I. No. 31 of 2014)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2A) Regulations 2013 (S.I. No. 313 of 2013)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2B) Regulations 2012 (S.I. No. 209 of 2012)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2B) Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 486 of 2011)

Finance (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2011 (S.I. No. 418 of 2011)

European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Privacy and Electronic Communications) Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 336 of 2011)

European Communities (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2010 (S.I. No. 610 of 2010)

European Communities (Data Collection in the Fisheries Sector) Regulations 2010 (S.I. No. 132 of 2010)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 5(1)(d)) (Specification) Regulations 2009 (S.I. No. 421 of 2009)

European Communities (Payment Services) Regulations 2009 (S.I. No. 383 of 2009)

European Communities (Good Agricultural Practice For Protection of Waters) Regulations 2009 (S.I. No. 101 of 2009)

European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Data Protection and Privacy) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 (S.I. No. 526 of 2008)

Data Protection (Processing of Genetic Data) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 687 of 2007)

Data Protection (Fees) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 658 of 2007)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 16(1)) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 657 of 2007)

European Communities (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2005 (S.I. No. 788 of 2005)

European Communities (Good Agricultural Practice for Protection of Waters) Regulations 2006 (S.I. No. 378 of 2006)

Customs and Excise (Mutual Assistance) Act 2001 (Section 8) (Protection of Manual Data) Regulations 2004 (S.I. No. 254 of 2004)

European Communities (Clinical Trials on Medicinal Products For Human Use) Regulations 2004 (S.I. No. 190 of 2004)

European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 2003 (S.I. No. 535 of 2003)

European Communities (Directive 2000/31/EC) Regulations 2003 (S.I. No. 68 of 2003)

European Communities (Data Protection and Privacy in Telecommunications) Regulations 2002 (S.I. No. 192 of 2002)

European Communities (Data Protection) Regulations 2001 (S.I. No. 626 of 2001)

Data Protection (Registration) Regulations 2001 (S.I. No. 2 of 2001)

Data Protection (Fees) Regulations 1996 (S.I. No. 105 of 1996)

Data Protection Commissioner Superannuation Scheme 1993 (S.I. No. 141 of 1993)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 5(1)(d) (Specification) Regulations 1993 (S.I. No. 95 of 1993)

Data Protection (Fees) Regulations 1990 (S.I. No. 80 of 1990)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 5(1)(d)) (Specification) Regulations 1989 (S.I. No. 84 of 1989)

Data Protection (Access Modification) (Social Work) Regulations 1989 (S.I. No. 83 of 1989)

Data Protection (Access Modification) (Health) Regulations 1989 (S.I. No. 82 of 1989)

Data Protection Act 1988 (Restriction of Section 4) Regulations 1989 (S.I. No. 81 of 1989)

Data Protection (Registration) Regulations 1988 (S.I. No. 351 of 1988)

Data Protection (Registration Period) Regulations 1988 (S.I. No. 350 of 1988)

Data Protection Act (Commencement) Order 1988 (S.I. No. 349 of 1988)

Data Protection (Fees) Regulations 1988 (S.I. No. 347 of 1988)

All statutory instruments up to and including Data Protection Act 1988 (Section 2B) Regulations 2022 (S.I. No. 354 of 2022), made 12 July 2022, were considered in the preparation of this revision.


Number 25 of 1988


DATA PROTECTION ACT 1988

REVISED

Updated to 12 July 2022


ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

Preliminary


Acts Referred to

Central Bank Act, 1971

1971, No. 24

Civil Service...

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