81A. (1) The Ombudsman Commission may, with the prior consent of the Government, enter into an agreement with a relevant person or body for the purpose of facilitating the performance by each party to the agreement of their respective functions, which agreement may, for that purpose, provide for—

(a) the co-operation of the parties,

(b) the exchange of information between the parties, or

(c) such other matters as the Ombudsman Commission thinks fit.

(2) Subject to the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018, the Ombudsman Commission may, pursuant to and in accordance with the terms of an agreement under this section, provide information to, and receive information from, the other party to the agreement.

(3) In this section—

"General Data Protection Regulation" means Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 ² on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC;

"relevant person or body" means—

(a) a police service or other law enforcement agency outside the State, or

(b) a person or body outside the State in whom or in which functions are vested under the law of a place other than the State that are equivalent, or similar, to the functions of the Ombudsman Commission under this or any other enactment.]