Doolin v. DPC (Notice Party: Our Lady’s Hospice and Care Services) - February 2020
Record No.
2019/211 CA
Type of action and Venue
Statutory appeal, High Court
Date of Judgment Order
21 February 2020
Outcome
The High Court allowed an appeal on a point of law against an earlier decision of the Circuit Court (1 May 2019) in which the Circuit Court had in turn upheld a statutory decision of the Data Protection Commissioner made under Section 10 of the Data Protection Acts, 1988 & 2003.
The High Court held that a finding made by the Circuit Court to the effect that the use of material derived from CCTV footage in the context of a disciplinary hearing amounted to processing for security purposes could not be sustained on the evidence. Accordingly, the DPC had made an error of law in holding that no further processing of the Applicant’s personal data took place when material derived from the footage in question was deployed by the Applicant’s employer in the course of a disciplinary hearing, such material having been obtained for a different purpose, i.e. a purpose relating to security.
Current Status of Case
The Judgment and Order of the High Court is the subject of a further appeal to the Court of Appeal; that appeal was heard on 15 June 2021 and judgment is currently awaited.