101. (1) Subject to subsection (2), the functions of the Commission under this Part shall be to—

(a) monitor and enforce application of this Part and regulations made under it,

(b) promote public awareness and understanding of the risks, rules, safeguards and rights in relation to processing,

(c) advise, on request by the body concerned, the Houses of the Oireachtas, Government and public authorities on legislative and administrative measures relating to the protection of individuals’ rights and freedoms with regard to processing,

(d) promote the awareness of controllers and processors of their obligations under this Part and the Directive,

(e) provide, on request by them, information to data subjects on the exercise of their rights under this Part and the Directive and, where appropriate, cooperate with the supervisory authorities of other Member States for that purpose,

(f) handle, in accordance with Part 6, complaints lodged by or on behalf of a data subject under Chapter 3 of that Part,

(g) examine the lawfulness of processing pursuant to section 95 and inform the data subject within a reasonable period of the outcome of the examination or of the reasons why the examination has not been carried out,

(h) cooperate with, and provide mutual assistance to, other supervisory authorities in accordance with section 103 and Chapter VII of the Directive with a view to ensuring consistent application and enforcement of the Directive,

(i) conduct, of its own volition or on the basis of information received from another supervisory authority or other public authority, investigations, in accordance with Part 6, on the application of this Part,

(j) monitor relevant developments insofar as they have an impact on the protection of personal data, in particular the development of information and communication technologies,

(k) provide advice to a controller or processor, as the case may be, pursuant to section 84, and

(l) contribute to the activities of the European Data Protection Board.

(2) The Commission shall not be competent for the supervision of data processing operations of the courts when acting in their judicial capacity.

(3) Subject to subsections (4) and (5), the Commission shall not charge a data subject or data protection officer a fee in respect of the performance by it of its functions under this section.

(4) Where a request referred to in Article 46(4) of the Directive is manifestly unfounded or excessive, the Commission may—

(a) charge the person who made the request a reasonable fee, based on its administrative costs, or

(b) refuse to act on the request.

(5) It shall be for the Commission to demonstrate that a request referred to in subsection (4) is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

(6) In this section, “excessive” includes, in particular, repetitive.

(7) For the purposes of this section, a request is repetitive where it is substantially the same as a request previously made by or on behalf of the same person and dealt with under this Part.