2. (1) In this Act—

“Act of 1988” means the Data Protection Act 1988;

“Act of 2014” means the Companies Act 2014;

“authorised officer” means a person appointed, or deemed to be appointed, to be an authorised officer under section 129;

“chairperson” means the chairperson of the Commission;

“civil servant” has the meaning assigned to it by the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956;

“Commission” has the meaning assigned to it by section 10;

“Commissioner” has the meaning assigned to it by section 15 and includes a member of staff authorised to act in place of a Commissioner under section 18;

“Data Protection Regulation” means Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016³ 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 (General Data Protection Regulation);

“Directive” means Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016⁴ on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA;

“enactment” has the same meaning as it has in the Interpretation Act 2005;

“local authority” means a local authority within the meaning of section 2 of the Local Government Act 2001;

F1[“Mayor of Limerick” has the meaning assigned to it by section 9 of the Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2024;]

“Minister” means the Minister for Justice and Equality;

“political party” means a political party registered in the Register of Political Parties in accordance with section 25 of the Electoral Act 1992;

“prescribe” means prescribe by regulations;

“public authority” means—

(a) a Department of State,

(b) a regional assembly,

(c) a local authority,

(d) the office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement,

(e) the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority,

(f) any other person established by or under an enactment (other than the Act of 2014 or a former enactment relating to companies within the meaning of section 5 of that Act) other than—

(i) a recognised school or board within the meaning of section 2 of the Education Act 1998 but including a recognised school established and maintained by an education and training board and a board of a school so established and maintained, and

(ii) a management committee established under section 37(3) of the Education Act 1998,

(g) a person with whom the Health Service Executive has, under section 38(1) of the Health Act 2004, entered into an arrangement for the provision of a health or personal social service by that person on behalf of the Executive,

(h) the Garda Síochána;

“public body” means—

(a) a company (within the meaning of the Act of 2014 or a former enactment relating to companies within the meaning of section 5 of that Act) a majority of the shares in which are held by or on behalf of a Minister of the Government,

(b) a subsidiary (within the meaning of section 7 of the Act of 2014) of a company referred to in paragraph (a);

“special categories of personal data”, other than in Part 5, means—

(a) personal data revealing—

(i) the racial or ethnic origin of the data subject,

(ii) the political opinions or the religious or philosophical beliefs of the data subject, or

(iii) whether the data subject is a member of a trade union,

(b) genetic data,

(c) biometric data for the purposes of uniquely identifying an individual,

(d) data concerning health, or

(e) personal data concerning an individual’s sex life or sexual orientation.

(2) Subject to subsection (1), a word or expression used in this Act, other than in Part 5, that is also used in the Data Protection Regulation has, unless the context otherwise requires, the same meaning in this Act as it has in that Regulation.

(3) Unless the context otherwise requires, a reference in this Act (other than in Part 5) to a numbered Article is a reference to the Article so numbered of the Data Protection Regulation.