Data Protection Commissioner seeks advice on being Data Protection Commissioner

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODC) has put an interesting framework out to tender: "the provision of legal services to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner".

Not an unusual thing, I am sure, for a state agency to seek legal advice on general operations. But check out this list of likely advice requirements:

a) Advice in regard to data protection enforcement issues which may arise in respect of data controllers;
b) Advice on the form of Statutory Notices to be issued in certain cases (e.g. Information Notices, Enforcement Notices);
c) Advice on legal options and representation in certain cases, including judicial review, appeals of Statutory Notices and prosecutions;
d) Advice on proposed and existing legislation affecting the Data Protection Acts;
e) Advice on data protection issues which arise in relation to the internet and the emerging e-commerce environment; and
f) Advice on contractual arrangements with consultants.
g) Advice on the form of summonses to be issued in respect of the Data Protection Commissioner’s prosecution functions.
h) Advice on the drafting of affidavits in certain cases such as appeal proceedings relating to Statutory Notices and judicial review proceedings.

This would entail, essentially, the wholesale outsourcing of the most important functions of the ODC and puts in the hands of legal firms the core knowledge and know-how relating to an increasingly-important regulatory area. It also suggests a shocking lack of existing knowledge at the ODC.

Should we not expect the ODC to have access to internal advice and know-how on data protection issues, prosecutions and legislative developments? Can we really accept the outsourcing of legislative proposals of this nature? And what is the purpose of the continued existence of the ODC if, in fact, most of its positions will be coming from the private sector anyway? Surely we could cut out the middleman, in that case.

Furthermore, didn't the McCarthy Report recommend the amalgamation of the ODC with other agencies, such as the Information Commissioner (as is the case in the UK)? Hardly a good time to be putting together a panel of legal advisers for the ODC, surely, and where is the funding coming from?

In which I am blacklisted by the Green Party?

Eh, WTF? I thought I might like to follow @greenparty_ie on Twitter but NO DICE: I have been blocked from following by the user!

What did I ever do to them? Hopefully I'll find out, as I've emailed them to ask what's up.

Hmmm?

My post vs. Independent article the next day?

Bertie thicker than we thought

Karen Coleman did a good enough job of trying to pin Bertie "Dickhead" Ahern down over a week ago (available on iTunes here as a podcast) but while everyone got all het up about his pretty predictable apologia for FF and the Hierarchy, did anyone notice his crazy analysis of the dotcom crash?

Listen in - it's about two thirds of the way through - when he goes on about how you can't perfectly balance an economy and that it's natural for certain industries to become dominant and then for the economy to become over-dependent on that industry.

He cites the example of the ICT industry and how people said, post-dotcom crash, that we were overly dependent on ICT (which I don't think is what people said, as far as I remember economists said we were overly dependent on exports and therefore the world economy, with no domestic demand to fall back on). Anyway he seems to blame the dotcom crash on the fact that computers didn't crash and planes didn't fall out of the sky post-Y2K.

Eh, wtf? Does Bertie believe that the ICT industry we had in Ireland pre Y2K was entirely servicing irrational Y2K fears? Stupid beyond belief or explanation.

Libertas discover old MEP expenses clip

A while back I posted an already-old clip from German TV which embarrassed some MEPs by showing them show up very early in the morning, packed baggage ready for imminent airport departures, to "sign on" for their eurodole.

Libertas recently drew attention to this in one of their nasty little email newsletters. Which I find interesting because Kathy Sinnott is effectively the Libertas candidate for the South constituency.

(Libertas aren't running a candidate in the South but Kathy is the de facto Libertard for that constituency. It appears that perhaps she was clever enough not to tie herself to a doomed vanity project - though isn't that what her own campaign is perhaps - and Libertas declined to run a competitor as they are happy enough with her. I wonder, if they do well in the election and she retains her seat, will she don the blue flag of bile?)

Anyway, it's interesting because she is one of the MEPs cornered by the TV crew and has a particularly pathetic, nasty little tantrum complete with suggestions of legal action (for what, exactly?).

Anyway please note: a vote for Sinnott is a vote for the Libertards.