The country is dependent on the global giants that call Dublin home. Irish ministers can\u2019t be trusted to chair vital European digital sovereignty talks<\/p>\n
On the face of it, Ireland behaves like a good European by being a staunch advocate of human rights and a beacon of progressivism on the western edge of the continent. But there is one vital area in which its record is less than perfect \u2013 one that should cause concern when the Irish government takes over the rotating six-month presidency of the EU on 1 July. The EU\u2019s tech and AI rulebook will be renegotiated during the same period, but the Irish state and economy have been captured by big tech. Ireland is so compromised that as president of the Council of the EU, it should recuse itself from all tech and digital sovereignty negotiations.<\/p>\n
The last time Ireland held the EU presidency was in 2013, during negotiations on the General Data Protection Regulation<\/a> (GDPR). A leaked<\/a> Facebook memo<\/a> describes a 2013 meeting where the company\u2019s executives met Ireland\u2019s then prime minister to complain about the proposed data privacy rules. They left understanding they had Enda Kenny\u2019s assurance that Ireland would use its \u201csignificant influence\u201d as EU Council president to deliver what Facebook called a \u201cpositive outcome\u201d. The executives also attended \u201ca dinner hosted by senior Irish politicians to work through the various ways that the Irish could be helpful\u201d.<\/p>\n Johnny Ryan is director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties<\/p>\n Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n