IrelandGDPR Articles 33-34, Breach Notification in Ireland
Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Arts. 33-34
In force since .
A breach notification rule binding public and private bodies.
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- Operator establishment, Market targeting, User location, Place of effect
- Obligation class
- Breach notice
- Audit expectation
- on_request
- Who audits it
- Regulator
- Where the report goes
- Produced on request
What it requires
- Notify the Data Protection Commission without undue delay, and within 72 hours where feasible, after becoming aware of a personal data breach affecting a person in Ireland, unless the breach is unlikely to risk their rights and freedoms.
- If you process personal data on behalf of a controller, notify the controller without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal data breach (Article 33(2)).
- Notify affected individuals without undue delay where a breach is likely to result in a high risk to their rights and freedoms.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text. Also read by: Data Protection Commission (guidance, recorded ).
In the frameworks
- NIST Privacy Framework
- CM.AW-P7Impacted individuals and organizations are notified about a privacy breach or event.
- NIST CSF 2.0
- RS.CO-02Internal and external stakeholders are notified of incidents
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-DET-001AI Data Leakage Prevention and Detection
- AIR-DET-004AI System Observability
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionYes
Penalty structure
GDPR Article 83(4)(a): the lower fine tier, up to EUR 10,000,000 or 2% of total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, applies to infringement of the controller and processor obligations in Articles 25 to 39, which include the Article 33 and 34 breach notification duties.
- Rule
- Higher of
- As of
- Currency
- EUR
- Fixed cap
- 10,000,000
- Turnover percentage cap
- 2
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Data Protection Commission (An Coimisiún um Chosaint Sonraí), Ireland's supervisory authority under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Enforcement record
Counts the large scale statutory inquiries the Data Protection Commission finalised in calendar year 2025 (4), per the Commission's own press release announcing its 2025 Annual Report, published . The fines imposed that year included two fines totalling EUR 530 million against TikTok Technology Limited over transfers of EEA user data to China, and a EUR 550,000 fine against the Department of Social Protection over biometric facial matching in the Public Services Card registration process; the release's own stated total of fines for the year is just over EUR 530.77 million. Public enforcement actions only, counted from the Commission's own announcement rather than a private tracker; the release does not restate a cumulative total since 2018. This is the regime's own enforcement record, not specific to this instrument.
- As of
- Currency
- EUR
- Source link
- https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/data-protection-commission-publishes-2025-annual-report
- Fines per year
- 530,770,000
- Actions per year
- 4
Settledness
- As of
- Guidance link
- https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/organisations/know-your-obligations/breach-notification
- Guidance body
- Data Protection Commission
What it makes you log
Who may demand the log
Regulator
Logging duty
The controller documents every personal data breach, whether or not it is notified; the text names the facts, the effects and the remedial action but no fixed log fields.
- Kind
- Explicit
- As of
- Provision
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Art. 33(5)
- Trigger
- security_incident
What this law does
A controller must notify the Data Protection Commission without undue delay, and within 72 hours where feasible, after becoming aware of a personal data breach, and must notify affected individuals without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to their rights and freedoms. No DPA 2018 derogation from this timeline was identified.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app processes personal data.
Back to the example · Lint your app
Page updated .