The president of GMIT Students' Union has said there is a lot of public anger after staff members were overheard discussing some students' grades online - but he will be guided by the students affected.
It is believed students at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) were able to hear two staff discuss students' presentations and allocate marks after an online connection remained live.
Some of the clips include insulting language - such as a staff member asking whether there was 'something wrong' with one student.
Several video clips of the incident have been widely shared across messaging apps.
GMIT Students' Union President Victor O'Loughlin told Lunchtime Live he was made aware of the issue in a formal complaint on Sunday.
He said he will take his cue from the students.
"I didn't initially believe it was GMIT, until the person who reported it and raised the alarm informed me of who the staff members in question were.
"And then, as I began to recognise the voice, it sort of set in".
"From a student perspective it's very disheartening to see - a lot of people don't see the work that goes into the other end of students pulling all-nighters, trying to study, trying to balance part-time jobs".
"If I was back as a student... I'd be very upset to see that those comments made about something that I would present".
He said he can understand the public anger - but it is up to the GMIT students themselves as to what happens next.
"Our inboxes are full at the moment; if there are any students that haven't heard back from me that have tried to contact me, I would just say to be patient - we're doing our best to make our way through as many e-mails as possible".
'A lot of anger'
In a statement on Monday, GMIT President Dr Orla Flynn apologised for the data breach which had caused "such deep hurt and dismay".
She said: "GMIT is known as a student-centred institute and some of the comments made by our staff do not reflect the values to which we aspire.
"We are taking the breaches of GMIT policies and data protection legislation very seriously.
"Apologies will be issued to the students directly concerned."
Victor said: "There's a lot of anger, as you can see from social media, but the students in question I can't speak for them".
He said he believes apologies have been made to the students affected.
"We take our lead from the students, and if the students are willing to accept the apology - the apology that I care about is the apology that went directly to those students from the staff, which I've been informed has already occurred - if the students are willing to accept that apology, then I'm willing as president to accept that apology.
"If not, we can advise them on how to prepare a formal complaint and go through the procedures".
"But it's not up to me to say whether an apology has gone far enough, it's up to the students that are being apologised to".
He added: "There's outrage on social media, but I'm not taking direction from social media: I'm taking direction from the students that have raised issues with this".
He also suggested that re-training could be an option for staff when using technology such as Zoom.
