There has been an increase in data breaches at the Department of Agriculture in recent years.

The Department of Agriculture has had 268 data breaches since 2020, according to Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue.

Data breaches recorded by the Department are already higher for 2023 than they were in 2022 (62), with 68 recorded to date this year.

There were a higher 84 data breaches at Ag House in 2021, up significantly from 54 in 2020, 50 in 2019 and 35 in 2018.

Questions

The update on data breaches at the Department came following questioning by Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD in the Dáil this week.

Minister McConalogue said that it should be noted that no records of data breaches were maintained at his Department before 2016, when there was just five.

There were 62 data breaches at the Department of Agriculture last year.

“The current operational procedure is that the majority of low-risk data breaches are not reported to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) in line with DPC guidance on this issue,” he said.

Dublin Airport seizures

Separately, figures provided by Minister McConalogue in response to a question put by Alan Kelly TD this week show that food seizures at Dublin Airport are running ahead of 2022’s control activity.

To date in 2023, there have been 2,366 food seizures made by Department staff at the airport, up from the 2,314 made over the whole of 2022.

Checks undertaken by Department staff at ports and airports remain an “important element of our national biosecurity”, the Minister stated.