The Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced today that it has opened an inquiry into Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) relating to the physical safety and security of children’s health records within one specific CHI facility in Tallaght, Co Dublin.
The DPC said it became aware that there were potential issues at this site from a number of different sources of information, including through protected disclosures that the DPC received and also a breach notification submitted to the DPC by CHI. Having reviewed the information, the DPC conducted an unannounced site inspection on Wednesday 16 July, 2025.
It said that the formal inquiry will examine CHI’s compliance with their GDPR obligations, in particular relating to the security of personal data and the processes that CHI have in place for managing physical records at CHI (Tallaght).
Newstalk reports that the data breach related to the physical safety and security of children’s health records within the specific CHI facility in Tallaght. RTÉ News, meanwhile, said it understood that the issues had been “ongoing for some time” and that “hundreds of children’s patient records are held in this room at any one time, but that access to the area is not sufficiently restricted.”
CHI has said it is cooperating fully with the Data Protection Commission. It added in a statement that its”priority is the protection of patient information and ensuring all personal data is handled in line with our legal obligations.”